President’s Quarterly Letter

Dear LHA members,

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the re-establishment of the LHA. Since 1992 a great deal has been accomplished along the historic corridor, and many more people are aware of the road and are out there traveling the back roads of America.

As we approach the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the congressionally appointed Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (ALBC) is promoting a greater awareness of our nation’s greatest president and for whom the highway was named. The patriotic approach to building the highway worked in favor of gaining much needed grassroots and political support for the corridor as it was marked in 1913. In late September of this year, the LHA received news that both the 2008 and 2009 LHA conferences have been endorsed by the ALBC. Such an endorsement will be effective in achieving our mission: to preserve and promote the historic road. Our activities take on even greater meaning as we work on very local projects, state-level projects, and national-level projects.

The LHA Board of Directors, committees, and our executive director are setting new goals that focus on the long-term objectives of sustaining our organization’s mission, achieving national byway designations, preserving the road, and collaborating with tourism professionals to promote heritage tourism.

We challenge every member of the LHA and the public to become involved by being a voice for the road, asking others to join the LHA, participating in activities, building collaborations with local and regional partners, and by sharing your own resources, whatever they may be. I urge you to join the leadership of the LHA by offering your time, talents, and resources. We have much work to do, many road trips to take and make new friends to make.

Get out there — drive the road! We look forward to seeing you in Evanston, Wyoming in June 2008 and in South Bend, Indiana in June 2009.

Jan Shupert-Arick, President, LHA