Grant funds allow seniors to tour historic sites without hitting the road

Jim Byerly is a regular guest at the Still Waters Adult Day Center in the Castleton area of Indianapolis. He’s been visiting the center for nearly nine years and is one of dozens of seniors, many living with physical limitations or cognitive conditions, who go to Still Waters during the week for supervised care and to participate in activities that bring joy and purpose to life.

Jim and his friends at Still Waters are unable to travel much these days, yet over the past several months, they’ve toured several historic sites around the state. 

They’ve been able to do this through the power of technology, a partnership between Still Waters and the Indiana State Museum, and funding from a Historic Preservation Education Grant offered by Indiana Humanities and Indiana Landmarks.

The staff of Still Waters is committed to providing programs that engage guests and ensure that they have high-quality experiences that enrich their lives, and in recent years they’ve worked with the Indiana State Museum to present several stand-alone sessions. But this year they decided to expand the offerings to include a robust mix of in-person activities, as well as virtual tours of some of the museum-run historic sites, including the T. C. Steele State Historic Site near Nashville, the Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, and Angel Mounds State Historic Site outside of Evansville.

“While we’ve always incorporated creative and cultural activities into our programming, offering virtual history tours and structured storytelling tied to Indiana’s preserved sites is new for us,” said Diana Keely, executive director at Still Waters. “We wanted to go beyond typical day center activities and truly immerse our guests in Indiana’s history in a way that felt both personal and engaging.”

Jordan Brinker, public programs manager at the Indiana State Museum, worked with Diana and the Still Waters team to develop the new series. Jordan recently received training and certification to work with people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and she collaborated with Jessica Stephens, manager of the T. C. Steele Historic Site, who also has experience working with these audiences, to come up with the virtual tours as well as other history- and art-based programs in the series.

So far, Jordan and her colleagues have scheduled tours of five state historic sites and plan to offer three more. During each tour, the site’s manager begins by discussing the history of the site and then walks through the site with a camera, offering a tour of the space and highlighting important and interesting artifacts. 

The goal of the Historic Preservation Education Grant is to help engage the public with Indiana’s historic structures so that Hoosiers know the structures’ stories, understand their value, and are encouraged to preserve and protect them. Offering greater access to these landmarks through technology and creative approaches aligns well with Indiana Humanities’ and Indiana Landmarks’ vision for the grant.

Jordan notes just how rewarding it has been to work with Jim and the other seniors at Still Waters, and for his part, Jim appreciates the efforts of Jordan and the staff at the state historic sites. “I am unable to go to these various historical sites,” he said. “So they bring the sites to us in person and to life. I have thoroughly enjoyed them.”

For Diana, engaging Still Waters’ guests in these types of humanities-centered activities is invaluable. 

 “This kind of programming has a profound impact,” Diana notes. “It sparks curiosity, brings joy, and stimulates memory and conversation. It gives our guests something meaningful to look forward to and reminds them, as well as everyone around them, that their diagnosis does not define who they are or what they’re capable of enjoying. We see guests light up when they recognize a piece of history, share a story from their own lives, or create something new. It’s about dignity, connection, and celebrating the fact that they still have so much to explore and contribute.”

For information about how the Historic Preservation Education Grant can help you tell the stories of your own community landmarks, visit the grant’s web page. To find out more about the programs that the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites offers, visit https://www.indianamuseum.org/. To learn more about the important services that Still Waters Adult Day Center provides, explore www.stillwatersadc.org.