Georgia Day Parade - GA Historicial Society in Danger of Losing State Funding

Did you know that today is Georgia's birthday? There was a celebration in style, complete with a parade and some even celebrated with cake.

News 3’s Randi Hempel takes us to the Georgia Day parade, which is part of Georgia Days, the signature educational event hosted by the Georgia Historical Society.

The 3rd Infantry Division band leads the Georgia Day parade. It's a day to bring Georgia history to about 25,000 school children in the Savannah area.

"How important is it to learn about Georgia history?" I ask a Gould Elementary 2nd grader.

"It's a lot important because when you're a grown up and if somebody asks you and you might not know and you'll say ahhhh…"explains Makaila Wyatt, a 2nd grader at Gould Elementary

"We want to know where our ancestors came from and how we became a free nation," adds James Allen, a 5th grader at Calvary Day School.

"There are so many people who told me the way they got interested in Georgia history is because they either participated in or as a child they watched the Georgia Day parade and that sparked an interest in history and studying it that stayed with them for the rest of their lives," Dr. W. Todd Groce, President and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society talks about how he loves seeing the children excited.

The Georgia Day parade is one of the many learning experiences made possible by the Georgia Historical Society, which funds all of the Georgia Days events. But now the Georgia Historical Society is in danger of losing all of their funding from the state with proposed budget cuts.

$300,000 would be cut. It's complete elimination of state funding, 15% of their operating cost.

"This seems like a no brainer because the state we feel has a vested interest in telling its story to school children, to visitors alike and we are trying to help them to do that and to play a part in that so we are doing what we can do to get some of the funding restored," explains Dr. W. Todd Groce, President and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society.

So they won't have to cut opportunities to learn like the Georgia Day parade.

The state money they rely on is for operating the library and archives and the historical marker program. If it's cut, there will be limited access to history, they'll have to restrict hours of operation, and will no longer be able to put up historical markers. That means money that goes to education programs now will have to be reallocated to pay for the library and archives.

If your child's school wasn't able to participate today, don't worry, you can find thehttp://www.georgiahistory.com/containers/4 from the Georgia Historical Society.