FORT SCOTT — There are countless heroes overlooked by the history books, Lowell Milken said Tuesday.
Through an ever-growing network of educators and now millions of students, those unsung heroes are being discovered on a daily basis.
“People and events previously unknown serve to challenge our understanding and add context to our decisions to create a more secure future for us and our children,” said Milken, a businessman, philanthropist, education advocate and the namesake of Fort Scott’s gleaming new Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes.
The Milken Center, at 1 S. Main St. in the heart of Fort Scott, occupies space formerly occupied by a series of buildings destroyed in a 2005 fire.
Billed as an interactive museum, the center also serves as an international education tool that helps discover, develop and communicate the stories of individuals who have made a profound and positive impact on the lives of others.
As an innovative educational think tank, the LMC provides resources to students and teachers around the world on how to develop unsung hero projects, including topic ideas, research tools and references.
Also on hand for Tuesday’s grand opening were educators from across the nation, dignitaries and four of the aforementioned unsung heroes:
— Ken Reinhardt and Ann Williams Wedaman, were Little Rock Central High School seniors who faced threats for their support of nine African Americans who integrated their school at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
— Lt. Colonel Tran Ngoc “Harry” Hue, a combat leader for South Vietnam who led his troops in battle in support of the United States during the Vietnam War.
— Therese Frare, a journalism student whose haunting 1990 photograph of an AIDS victim on his deathbed became a rallying cry for compassion during a growing HIV epidemic.
“We’re thrilled to be in Fort Scott because the community has been so responsive,” Milken said after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We’re also thrilled to be here today because we’ve brought in so many fellows who love coming to Fort Scott, because they’ve been treated so well by the community.”
THE LOWELL Milken center was launched in 2007, but its genesis starts more than 15 years prior, when Milken honored former Uniontown High School history instructor Norm Conard with a Milken Educator Award.
Over the years Conard, who transitioned from the classroom to become LMC’s executive director, has engaged thousands of students in outstanding history projects that incorporate performing arts, multimedia, and video production.
The Milken-Conard affiliation hit high gear in 1999, when a group of UHS students developed a short story on the life of Irena Sendler.
“Life in a Jar” detailed Sendler’s efforts as a Polish Catholic social worker who saved more than 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
The play’s title was inspired by Sendler’s putting the children’s names in a jar, and burying the jars in her yard in the event the children were to become reacquainted with their families.
