Left to right: Tom McLaughlin, Director of the Lincoln Heritage Museum; Gary Smit, Chairman of the Board of The Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development; Ron Keller, Professor at Lincoln College and future organizer of The Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development

Lincoln Heritage Museum Acquires the Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development

[July 15, 2016]  LINCOLN  -  The Lincoln Heritage Museum is pleased to announce Lincoln College will acquire the name, resources, and organization of The Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development.

The Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is “to provide character development training, measurement and evaluation services, and community coalition-building support to schools, businesses, families, communities and other organizations throughout the state of Illinois and beyond."

With similar missions and goals, it is a natural fit for the Lincoln Heritage Museum to acquire the Center.

Ron Keller, former Lincoln Heritage Museum Director and current Professor of History and Political Science at Lincoln College will be overseeing the transition of the Center to the museum as well as all activities for the Center.

“We need more Abraham Lincolns today. For the past 13 years, The Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development has sought to instill Lincoln’s values into the everyday life of students, communities and the public at large,” said Ken Fisher, executive director of the Center and a driving force behind its work. “After carefully considering our options we are confident that this will be the best way to not only continue, but to expand the mission and activities of the Center. We are excited to have Lincoln College and the Lincoln Heritage Museum take the reins.”

“I am looking forward to working with Ron to dive deeper into the character of Abraham Lincoln and share the lessons we have learned and can still learn with our local groups, organizations, and schools,” said Tom McLaughlin, Director of the Lincoln Heritage Museum.

Keller notes the museum’s design, mission, and theme were based on feedback from hundreds of people. The common theme noted was the interest in learning more about Lincoln’s character, such as his empathy, loyalty, honesty, and ability to overcome challenges.

Therefore, the Lincoln Heritage Museum’s mission; “learn from Lincoln, live like Lincoln.” is very similar to the Center’s.

The Center’s focus also complements Lincoln College’s mission to empower students’ lives. The Museum has and will continue to employ character as part of the experience for students when they visit the museum. Through the Abraham Lincoln Center for Character Development, it will be possible to take that beyond the doors of the Museum to the campus, community, and region.

Some of the goals the Lincoln Heritage Museum has for the Center when it transfers include:

• Development of educational packets by the museum for teachers and schools to include character examples from Abraham Lincoln’s life.
• In conjunction with the faculty and students in the B.A. in Theatre degree program, the College and the Museum will develop monologues on Lincoln’s life that have a character emphasis and will be performed in a living history format.
• The College will emphasize character-building into the curriculum student life on campus.
• Development by the college of a business community-based character program encouraging character and ethics within the business community.

Since its founding, the Center has successfully instilled character development into schools and businesses and the Lincoln Heritage Museum looks forward to continuing the great foundational work of the Center.

The website can be found at: http://www.lincolncharacter.org.

[Christina Xamis, Public Relations & Media Manager, Lincoln College]