Linda Willis, a teacher with the Metropolitan School District of Mt. Vernon’s Gifted and Talented program, is the recipient of Historic Southern Indiana’s 2006 Frank and Judy O’Bannon Heritage Enrichment Award. The award is given to an individual who is an exemplary model of community education through such activities as community heritage, heritage/cultural tourism, historic preservation, and historical interpretation in the HIS region, which includes 26 counties in southern Indiana.

Willis was nominated by Jan Kahle, the education coordinator with Historic New Harmony, who noted that “Linda Willis’ goal is to motivate students to become life-long learners through classroom participation and experiential learning.” Willis developed the Challenge Program which is an enrichment program for third, fourth, and fifth grade students. The Challenge Program uses regional heritage to focus on science, math, social studies, and language arts. It utilizes historic sites and objects to supplement the in-class experience.
 
Willis created the New Harmony Museum Connection. Third grade students explore the pioneer era by studying about the pioneer era in the classroom. The class then takes a trip to New Harmony where they participate in an Early Community Living program in which they are exposed to such things as open hearth cooking, candle dipping, butter churning, and rope making. A few weeks later the students bring their families to this same program and demonstrate and interpret the “chore” of their choice to their families while explaining its importance to family life.

For fourth grade students, it is the Victorian Era where they study the customs and culture of this age. They visit New Harmony where they take part in a Victorian tea party, as well as Victorian pastimes such as flower pressing and silhouette cutting. When their families attend the program later, the students become the demonstrators.

The fifth grade students become playwrights. They write dialogue, develop characters, design and create scenery and direct the two/three scene productions. After rehearsal in the classroom and at Thrall’s Opera House, the students present an evening of theatre to their families.
Willis was presented the O’Bannon Award at HSI’s 20th anniversary gala at the Rapp-Owen Granary in New Harmony on October 12, 2006. She received a check for $1,000 and a plaque.
 

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