A Sign of the Times

The “Our Town” events of April 13-15 are drawing near, and we couldn’t be more excited! We’re happy to announce that we now have fabulous sign layout available, thanks to the generosity of Blazek Design, a Beaumont-based graphic design business. The signs are 2’x4’, emblazoned with the “Our Town: Preserving the Past” logo against a creamy background.

Participants were originally expected to design their own signs, but with Blazek Design’s participation, we will now be able to print them professionally and uniformly!  Here’s just one example:



If you would like to have us print your sign, please submit your text and photos to the museum no later than Friday, March 30, 2012. You can email the information to us at jlinsley@mcfaddin-ward.org or bring it by the McFaddin-Ward House visitor center, 1906 Calder Avenue. The information will then also be put on our brochure and blog.

Along with your data, be sure to include your name, phone number, street address, and email address. That information is strictly for us to be able to contact you and will, of course, be kept confidential.

Once the signs are printed and mounted on stakes, we will bring them by your home on Thursday, April 12 or Friday, April 13 for placement near the street or sidewalk. If you have a specific request for the location of your sign, please let us know when you submit your data.

If you prefer to design your own sign, that’s fine, but please still bring us your research, photographs, etc., by Friday, March 30, so we can copy it and include it on our brochure and blog. Then we’ll order signs that are blank except for the printed logo and have them ready for you to pick up the next week.

We are grateful for all of the talent and effort our community is putting into the project; now, we need to be sure everyone meets the research submission deadline of Friday, March 30, 2012. That’s crucial in order for us to have time to edit the information to fit the signs. In fact, the earlier you can send your pièce de résistance, the better!

Participants may e-mail their submissions to Judy Linsley at jlinsley@mcfaddin-ward.org, or mail them to the McFaddin-Ward House Museum Education Department at 725 Third Street, Beaumont, TX 77701. They may also be dropped off at the visitor center. Just be sure to include your name, phone number, street address, and email address along with your information (we’ll be sure to keep that private).

For questions or help getting started, feel free to call the education department at (409) 832-1906. For an example of a research piece, check out our last blog entry, “Old Town Research: The MythBusters Edition” (clever, we know), that contains both a casual and a formal approach to research submissions.

While you’re surfing the Web, don’t forget to check out Joey Blazek’s Web site at www.blazekdesign.com for more examples of his work. As for us, we’ll be at our desks, waiting for your phone calls and submissions!