ESTABLISHED 1879 | COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI CDISPATCH.COM 75 ¢ NEWSSTAND | 40 ¢ HOME DELIVERY FRIDAY | MAY 24, 2019 Lowndes County aims CVB: Pilgrimage brought up to 10,000 to be certified visitors, $600K in economic impact with education nonprofit Program will focus on educating parents on early education opportunities in the community BY MARY POLLITZ
[email protected] The Lowndes County Community Foundation’s educa- tional task force is working to prepare students for kinder- garten starting at birth. Since education Spears was a top concern county-wide during a community conversation LCF hosted with area stakeholders in March 2018, the task force sub- Dispatch file photo mitted an application to Excel by Kathy Novotny informs guests about the history of her home, Temple Heights, during the 2018 Columbus Pilgrimage 5, a community-based certification in this Dispatch file photo. Novotny and other antebellum homeowners are concerned that they don’t have enough group aiming to prepare Mississippi communication with the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau in the months leading up to Pilgrimage. children, from birth to age 5, for suc- cess in education. Lowndes County is now considered a candidate com- munity for the program. Some homeowners ask for more communication Jason Spears, Columbus Munic- ipal School District board president and chair for the education task with CVB before next year’s Pilgrimage force, said the process of moving from candidate to certified is now BY AMANDA LIEN visitors for the past four years. start,” Novotny said. “We aren’t real- underway.
[email protected] They enjoy showing guests ly told anything until we’re asked (to Spears said by going through around their homes, which were participate in home tours) and given Gaines Gaskin and the process of certification, the task two of 12 antebellum houses on this the contract to sign.” Kathy Novotny both force will work to ensure parents year’s tour.