News, Tours & Events
Forest Lawn Heritage Foundation Unveils Trolley Purchased With Generous Grant From The James H. Cummings Foundation, Inc.
Posted on November 18th, 2011Trolley to be Used as Part of Forest Lawn’s
Newly-announced Educational Exchange Program.
Click here to view photos from this event.
Buffalo, NY – The Forest Lawn Heritage Foundation today officially unveiled its new 39-seat trolley, which the Foundation was able to purchase thanks to a generous grant from The James A. Cummings Foundation. The unveiling was held at the Harriett Ross Tubman Buffalo Public School #31, where Forest Lawn also announced its new Educational Exchange Program, available to all area schools.
Forest Lawn has, for years, offered a popular and successful private tour program so that schools and area groups such as senior citizen centers and garden clubs could experience the educational and historical benefits of the cemetery. The addition of the trolley and the Educational Exchange Program will allow those schools that could not otherwise afford to visit Forest Lawn the opportunity to do so.
Through the Educational Exchange Program, Forest Lawn will be able to utilize its new trolley to travel to schools within Erie County to pick up students and bring them back to the cemetery for a tour and in-depth educational experience. In exchange, the schools will provide Forest Lawn with a completed educational project involving one of several aspects of the cemetery.
Complete details of Forest Lawn’s Educational Exchange Program and its school group tour policy can be found here.
“We are most grateful to The Cummings Foundation for its generous grant, which allows us to further our mission of promoting Forest Lawn as a cultural and educational destination,” says Holly Donaldson, Forest Lawn Heritage Foundation Chair & Trustee, Forest Lawn Cemetery. “This trolley will not only allow us to expose more people to the history and beauty of historic Forest Lawn, but it also gives us the ability to pick up schoolchildren and other groups who otherwise would not have the means to get to the cemetery for a guided tour.”
“Forest Lawn is a unique educational and historical resource within our community,” says Charles F. Kreiner, Jr., President of the Board of Directors of The James H. Cummings Foundation. “It is part of The James H. Cummings Foundation’s mission to help ensure that community resources are accessible to all – be they young or old. This trolley will now provide the access so that these children will have the opportunity to learn about Buffalo’s diverse and rich history.”
The ten-foot, six-inch-high trolley contains a wheelchair lift and extra-wide aisle, making it fully handicapped accessible, and it is both heated and air conditioned. Its large windows on all sides and wide solid oak bench seats will provide a comfortable ride with easy viewing of the cemetery from all sides. The trolley also contains a state-of-the-art sound system with a six-speaker public address system, CD capabilities and AM-FM radio, brass poles and bell. The trolley will be an integral part of Forest Lawn’s successful Sunday In The Cemetery tour program, which begins its 17th season in the spring of 2012.
The site for today’s event – School 31 – was chosen because of its significance to Forest Lawn. Sara Hinson, Buffalo schoolteacher and principal and co-founder of Flag Day, taught at School 31 for many years. She passed away in 1926 and is buried at Forest Lawn. She is portrayed on Forest Lawn tours by local actress Margo Davis and is an integral part of the Sunday In The Cemetery tours as well as Forest Lawn’s annual Flag Retirement Ceremony. Students from School 31 participated in today’s event, along with first-grade teacher, Bridget Richardson, and assistant principal, Barry Ifedigbo.
