WEST BRANCH, IOWA? Kick off National Park Week 2013 on Saturday, April 20 by helping keep Herbert Hoover National Historic Site looking worthy of the 31st President of the United States. The staff of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site needs volunteers to help spruce up fences, paths, and plantings around its historic buildings, replace signs along its boundary fence, and clean up the creek bed. This is a great opportunity to get involved hands-on with your local national park.

Volunteers interested in helping may call Adam Prato or Kristin Gibbs at (319) 643-2541. Meet at the Visitor Center at 8:30 a.m. for an orientation and to get signed up. Work will be from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Dress for the weather and wear comfortable work clothes. Water, sunscreen, sunglasses, and hats are recommended. Long pants and closed-toe footwear are required. The park will provide work gloves and other needed tools and equipment.

National Park Week, April 20 to 28, is the annual week for celebration and recognition of your National Parks. National parks are living examples of the best this nation has to offer?our magnificent natural landscapes and our varied yet interrelated heritage. They provide recreational experiences, opportunities to learn and grow, and places of quiet refuge. National Park Week is also a good time to explore local parks, trails, and architectural gems sustained through National Park Service programs such as the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program and the National Register of Historic Places. A map of places in Iowa served by these programs may be found at http://www.nps.gov/state/ia/.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space. For more information go online at www.nps.gov/heho or call (319) 643-2541.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

110 Parkside Drive

PO Box 607

West Branch, Iowa 52358

319 643-2541 phone

319 643-7864 fax

www.nps.gov/heho

Twitter: @HooverNPS

Facebook: HerbertHooverNHS

Celebrate Preservation Month at Brucemore with free guided tours of the Mansion on Saturday, May 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 5 from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Explore over a century of Cedar Rapids history through the lives of the three families who called Brucemore home.  Follow a guide on a tour of the 21-room Queen Anne Mansion and investigate the art, furnishings, technology, architecture, surrounding landscape, and stories preserved at Brucemore. The Mansion tour provides a glimpse into the past and an incomparable way to understand modern Cedar Rapids and Eastern Iowa. Tours will begin approximately every 15 minutes with the last tour beginning at 3:00 p.m.

In 1971, the National Trust created Preservation Week to spotlight grassroots preservation efforts around the country, and has since grown into an annual celebration for local communities to honor their past and help build their future. The theme for 2013 is "See it. Save it. Celebrate it."

Brucemore will offer other Preservation Month activities in May, including:

• Evening Mansion Tour - May 2, 6:00 p.m.
• Historic Neighborhood Walk - May 9, 6:00 p.m.
• Brucemore Summer Plant Sale - May 11, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
• Brucemore Arts Share: An Evening of Literature and Music - May 14, 7:00 p.m.
• Hired Help Tour: Working on a Country Estate - May 16, 6:00 p.m.
• Nooks and Crannies Mansion Tours - May 23, 6:00 p.m.
• Brucemore in Bloom Tour - May 30, 6:00 p.m.

For more information about Preservation Month activities during May and throughout the year, visit Brucemore's website at www.brucemore.org or call (319) 362-7375. Visit the National Trust for Historic Preservation website at www.preservationnation.org for more information about Preservation Month.

About Brucemore

Experience Brucemore, an unparalleled blend of tradition and culture, located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the heart of the historic 26-acre estate stands a nineteenth-century mansion filled with the stories of three Cedar Rapids families.  Concerts, theater, programs, and tours enliven the site and celebrate the heritage of a community.  For more information, call (319) 362-7375 or visit www.brucemore.org.

Davenport, Iowa (March 28, 2013) - PechaKucha Night builds at the Figge Art Museum this Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the museum lobby.

PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, or hobbies in the PechaKucha 20x20 format. This format allows presenters to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each (six minutes and 40 seconds in total) to keep presentations concise and fast-paced. The images advance automatically and the presenter talks along to the images.

PechaKucha Night this Thursday will feature eight presenters including Vincent Briley, Assistant Dean of Academic Advising & Testing at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges; Tony Singh, Senior Vice President of The Singh Group at Merrill Lynch; Diane Franken, artsBASICS Co-Project Director at Davenport Community Schools; Ann Love, Director of Museum Studies at Western Illinois University-Quad Cities;  local artists Matt Pulford and Jeff Tady; local artist and financial advisor of The Singh Group at Merril Lynch, Thomas Behne; and Bruce Walters, professor of art at Western Illinois University.

Devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture, the first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. Now, they are held in over 600 cities around the world by a city organizer. According to Figge Director of Development Raelene Pullen, "Our first night was a great success. We will continue to organize this vent on the last Thursday of each month."

Museum admission is free on Thursday evenings and this event will include free light appetizers beginning at 5:30 p.m. along with a cash bar. Thursday is the first of many PechaKucha Nights the Figge will be hosting. For more information on future dates, visit www.figgeartmuseum.org. If you are interested in becoming a presenter please contact Melissa Hueting at mhueting@figgeartmuseum.org.

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