The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum today announced that its Museum Educator Ellen Abernethy will lead the “Cool Stuff After School” program at the Staunton Public Library on Wednesday, March 31, from 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Due to inclement weather, the event was rescheduled from February 3.  In the program, which is geared for children from grades two through five, Ms. Abernethy will read from letters President Wilson’s children wrote to him.  After hearing these letters, the children will be asked to compare the lives the President’s children led compared to other children at that time and compared to children today.  Ms. Abernethy will also show photographs and artifacts to explore further how children lived during that time.  

The letters used will be from when President Wilson was President of Princeton University, as that is when his children were the age of the children participating in the program.  Many of the artifacts will be from the World War I era.  

This program is a part of the WWPL’s educational outreach program.  The Presidential Library regularly hosts area students at the Presidential Library for interactive programs that meet Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) requirements.  In the “Journey Into History” program and the “Professor, President, Peacemaker” program, students engage in a guided tour of Woodrow Wilson's birthplace and group activities in the Woodrow Wilson Museum and the Presidential Library’s classroom and education parlor.  The WWPL also hosts a summer “Journey Into History” camp, a three-day interactive history camp with a different theme each summer.

For more information about any of the Presidential Library’s education programming, contact Ellen Abernethy, Museum Educator, at eabernethy@woodrowwilson.org, or at (540) 885-0897, ext. 110, or visit the Presidential Library’s website at www.woodrowwilson.org. 

For information about the Staunton Public Library’s “Cool Stuff After School” program, contact Brenda Sutton at suttonbb@ci.staunton.va.us, or (540) 332-3902, or visit the website at www.stauntonlibrary.org.