The idea of a museum started brewing after Murphy and Kirby visited the
Football Hall of Fame this past summer in Canton, Ohio. As she explains,
the tour guide was trying to find an exhibit about women. But after going
through the entire facility, they could not find one. Murphy complained to
Novotny the next day, “they have a $100 million-dollar facility being built for
one men’s sport and we don’t even have
one facility for all of women’s sports?”
This conversation sparked the idea for the
HERStory Museum, a project that would
help tell stories of women and pass them
to young girls so they would understand
more about past generations.
With the idea coming to life, Novotny
suggested AdventHealth Center Ice as a
venue that is both rooted in the community,
and also brings in patrons from all over
the world – a perfect connection. They
approached Gordie Zimmermann and inked
a 3-year arrangement to convert the room
into something more.
The HERStory museum will honor a local
hero every year – nominations are being
accepted on the website.
Novotny said the idea behind the local hero is there are hundreds of other
women doing great things in our communities and their stories are never
told. This provides a platform to do that.
In addition to the individual stations, they created called “Beyond” where
the five women featured in the museum pass on a powerful and inspirational
message to younger generations.
The museum will award at least
one local scholarship each year to
a deserving local female athlete.
“We hope, through sponsorships
and donations, that we can award
multiple scholarships each year.”
Novotny said, “This HERStory
museum is a platform to engage
and educate young women about
Videos are linked to the stations with
stories of the women showcased
the proven winners who came
before them. This is not the only location that this type of museum can
be housed. The infrastructure behind the library of Herstories makes
it easy to expand into other venues and even for different sports. This
could be scaled up or down for colleges to recognize prominent alums,
corporations to recognize their leaders and community venues to recognize
their community leaders. The great thing is every time its deployed, more
newer stories can be told and heard by more people.” To learn more about
the HERStory museum including how you can sponsor a station or buy a
“virtual brick, donate a memorabilia item, nominate a local hero or apply
for the scholarship, go to getherstory.org. If you would like to get your own
HERStory museum, let them know. The next time your travels take you to
Wesley Chapel, be sure to stop in the North Viewing room and check out the
HERStory museum. Bring your phone, and explore the “HERstories”.
Memorabilia is on display among
the stations of the museum
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/getherstory.org
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