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Over the course of twenty years, and before the Stringtown Legacy Project had received status as a nonprofit, we received about five small grants.  From 2000-2003, a small group of teachers who are among the present directors of the Stringtown Legacy Project, received four $3,000-$5,000 grants through the OK Dept. of Ed.’s “Learn & Serve America” and “Community Education” Grants. The grants were granted to the Stringtown Public Schools for student projects involving community service. The group also received a SODA (Southern OKlahoma Development Association) grant of $2,000 to assist with the projects.  Soon after SLP gained nonprofit status, we received a $10,000 Walton Family Foundation Grant, written and submitted through ArVest Bank by a descendant of an early day family who had a business in the community.  The funds were used to get SLP’s largest project over the past ten years off to a start - that of restoring a 1915 prairie-box style home built by one of the town’s founding fathers and his two teenage sons. The house and fifteen acres had been purchased by the original Stringtown Historical Foundation, which had been established in 1985. Over the years, the aging members were no longer able to provide the finances for insurance, utilities, and upkeep. In 1999, the decision was made to deed the property to Stringtown Public Schools because of the property’s proximity to the school’s property on two sides.
 

In 2000, the Stringtown Legacy Project was established with the goal of preserving the history of Stringtown. During the next several years, the small grants previously mentioned were written through the State Department of Education for student involved projects that included interviews with older community members, helping aging residents with jobs they were no longer able to do, and other student led community activities. By 2009, SLP had gained nonprofit status with a 501(c)3 through reactivation of the former Stringtown Historical Foundation, Inc., and is now listed with the IRS as Stringtown Historical Foundation, Inc., with the trade name of Stringtown Legacy Project.
 

Upon completion of the exterior work on the “Garside House”, families in the community began sponsoring refurbishment of the rooms, until the house was completely restored. The project took seven years to complete as SLP raised funds through the annual “Good Old Days” community reunion, including the complete replacements of electrical wiring and plumbing, and the installation of a heating and cooling system. SLP then raised money through the sale of memorial bricks to establish a Veterans Memorial on the property, with a lighted sidewalk extending from the house to the memorial and flag.
 

Through a partnership formed between the local Rock Quarry and SLP, the “Good Neighbors” initiative evolved in 2012. Each September, volunteer work is done in the community by the 35 employees, joined by officials from headquarters in Texas. The volunteers spend two weekends providing labor, equipment, and materials needed for community improvements, and SLP members prepare and serve meals to the workers. As a result of the partnership over the years, the employees have moved boulders from the quarry, placing them at strategic historical sites on the property around the walking trail which was also laid with quarry materials. Through a Healthy Living grant written by a neighboring town’s Health Department (TSET) team, historical markers were made at the local Oklahoma Correctional facility with printed information about each site around the trail. The quarry employees cut metal plates for the historical signs, welded the signs to metal pipes and bolted the base of the signs to the boulders. Other projects by the quarry volunteers include mowing and cleaning both cemeteries in town, painting school and senior center buildings, installing and painting flagpoles at the city, cemeteries, and Veterans Memorial, and providing materials, equipment, and labor for grading bus route roads. The Healthy Living team also sponsored and assisted with SLP’s first community Dinner Theater February 2019 as a fundraiser for ongoing projects, and SLP began a  “Mary Parker Fried Pies” fundraiser, passing down a legacy of over sixty years ago from a group of ladies from one of the local churches.
 

Most recently, SLP has received three “Keep Oklahoma Beautiful” grants which consisted of a P & K sponsored STIHL Straightline Trimmer, paint for the local fire department, and a CL Boyd sponsored John Deere power washer. These material and equipment grants will be a huge asset in the beautification projects in progress.
 

SLP assisted with the city’s application for Municipal funding through the Choctaw Nation for a community gazebo in 2018. The project was funded and the ground ceremony was held on July 23, 2019. Construction  began in September and was completed in December, 2019. The TSET Healthy Living team and the Legacy group together coordinated a first time community event in Stringtown, Dec. 2019, called “Christmas Town”, with a horse drawn buggy taking passengers around the historical trail and stopping at six tops along the way to hear stories of Christmases past and ending at the Victorian style gazebo to enjoy caroling from a family of nine, all dressed in costumes of the Charles Dickens era.
 

Each September, SLP sponsors a “History Alive Day” at Stringtown Public Schools. Students from two neighboring schools join the students and staff for a full day of fun-filled, hands-on activities led by presenters from the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma Historical Society, Atoka Museum, Ft. Towson Civil War Cannon Display, Atoka County Healthy Living (TSET) presentations, as well as other local presenters. A field trip is made to the Rock Quarry where students learn about its operation, and the young children seek for hidden “treasures” from huge gravel mounds created for the day’s activities.
 

SLP joined the Jefferson Highway Association early in 2019 and has become actively involved in the association’s goal of making the once popular and well-travelled dirt “highway”, built in the early 1900s, a historical route. The route will follow its original path, as closely as possible, from Winnipeg, Canada to New Orleans, Louisiana. The first north-south transcontinental road ran through Stringtown, thus putting our little community on the drivable tour map. As a means of raising funds for JH signage through Stringtown, the town mayor initiated a “Mayor’s Challenge” for funding the signs. As a result, neighboring towns along the route joined in and at the present time, twenty-one signs have been submitted to the OK Correctional facility for printing, with more on the way. In November, 2019, our town completed the proclamation criteria for becoming a Purple Heart town, and a ceremony was held honoring Purple Heart recipients, MIA and POW veterans of the community as part of Stringtown School’s Veterans Day program, as Stringtown was officially proclaimed as a “Purple Heart Town”.
 

The project of telling our town’s story through murals evolved from involvement with the JH project. The mural painters live within forty miles and have painted several JH murals as well as many others in nearby communities, as well as other states. In 2019, the first two murals were completed -one to commemorate the Jefferson Highway through our town, and another of a stagecoach, commemorating its use of travel through the historical property in the mid-late 1800s.
 

The Legacy committee raised funding to pour a concrete pad for displaying the towns first “fire department” and the repair of the antique fire hose reel, which was used for distinguishing town fires until the present Fire Department was established in 1977. The fire hose reel project is in its final stage and will be set for displaying this year.
 

SLP’s operations have been almost entirely through fundraisers, donations, sponsorships, in-kind, and matching funds in order that the rich history of our community is preserved. Our desire is that SLP continues to create a more beautiful, safe, and healthy environment for all who travel this way and for those who may even decide to stay!