SAHPS board member Guy Ball (c) receiving award from Wayne Donaldson, State Historic Preservation Officer (l), and Ruth Coleman, Director of the California State Parks (r)

The Society’s history-based coloring book developed for local elementary students has won a coveted Governor’s Award from the California Office of Historic Preservation. The award was presented to coloring book designer and long-time SAHPS board officer Guy Ball at a special awards ceremony held at the historic and beautifully-restored Leland Stanford Mansion in Sacramento.

Click on the certificate above to see a larger view

The Santa Ana History Coloring and Activity Book was created as part of the Society’s Living History program for local schools. Project leader Guy Ball noted, “We wanted to have something kids could have fun with and learn about Santa Ana history. We took old postcard images and had a professional artist create images that children could color. Then we worked with two local SAUSD teachers (Josie M Castillo and Shirley Garcia) on age-appropriate captions and additional activity content. While the book was created in English, we added Spanish-language captions to help youngsters who might not totally understand what we were saying about history.”

The Office of Historic Preservation chose the book as one of the 2005 Preservation Awards noting "The Santa Ana Preservation Society uses its coloring book program to bridge generations and cultures in the rapidly changing population of their city.....The little book is a model for communities seeking to involve their immigrant children in the common heritage of the region."

The Society's award was in good company.  Other historic preservation projects recognized including the restoration of the 1909 Indio Historic Schoolhouse, work on the Campo De Cahuenga Memorial Park, the neighborhood walking tours of Oakland, the UC Berkeley Landscape Heritage Plan, and the work of the Helena Modjeska Foundation - Friends of Arden, among others.

When the coloring book was printed, the results were overwhelming 5,000 initial copies, funded by a grant from the City of Santa Ana federal CDBG program and additional funds from the Society, were quickly snapped up by teachers who lauded the coloring book as a great aid to teaching local history. The Society funded printing some additional copies, but that still wasn’t enough. The Floral Park and Wilshire Square Neighborhoods stepped up and each printed 1,000 more copies to distribute to their local schools. While we couldn’t afford additional funding, the Society has posted it on our website for teachers to freely download and print as needed.

“We’re thrilled to get the recognition for this project,” continued Guy. “We knew it was a valuable resource by the response by the children and their teachers. But this award helps reinforce that the Society is on the right track in our projects to make learning about history enjoyable – whether it be this coloring book, our downtown walking tours, or our historical cemetery tour. Thanks to our members, our special donors, our volunteers, and the support from the City of Santa Ana, we can continue to do great things like this.

(Copies of the book may be obtained by sending $2 for each copy to SAHPS-Coloring Book; 120 Civic Center Dr., West; Santa Ana, CA 92701.  If you would like to donate towards the printing of more copies, please email Guy at sahps@sahps.org)

Click here to see a copy of the book in PDF

Below, the event program (click to see a larger view)