This year a few of our 4th and 5th graders are participating in the NC Junior Historians Club! The club offers interesting ways for students to explore history and compete in contests sponsored by the N.C. Museum of History. Last year, RMA placed 1^st or 2^nd in 7 events, and is looking forward to an equally exciting year in 2016-2017.

This club is working hard to complete a literary project in magazine format to enter into a state competition. They have collected oral histories, taken field trips, held interviews, and done large amounts of research. Currently, their attention focus is the Rocky Mount Mills, the perfect subject for the student’s study. The mills are currently undergoing many changes, modernizations and are becoming a major part of Rocky Mount, just as in the past. The students are studying the original mills and what they were like in comparison to the current mills. The club meets on Mondays after school to study the changes in the mills and to work on putting their project together. They have taken field trips downtown to the mill, gravesite and the war monument. The club members took their own pictures on the field trip that they will use in their literary project. They went inside the newly renovated mill houses and took special notes of the architectural structures and how certain features in the houses would be different from the way they were many years ago.  The students have also spoken with citizens that were involved in the mill at an earlier stage. They really enjoyed hearing the stories and histories of these people that used to live or work in the original mills. Part of their study also includes inviting guest speakers to meetings to help them learn more about their study. Their first guest speaker was Jan Bowen Shearin, who visited the club on November 14th. Club members heard firsthand from her what it was like to live in the original mill village. Their guest shared stories and family photos. They already have other speakers lined up to visit the club including: Nelson Moody, Lorene Smith, and John Mebane. When 5th grader Caleb Thompson was asked about his favorite part about the NC Junior Historian club he said, “My favorite part is getting to preserve history because most of my friends don’t really care about history and it’s really cool.” The club plans to have their project finished and ready for publishing by early 2017. They asked that if anyone has any information that may be helpful to them, to please let them know!