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Skriven 2007-05-09 23:31:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (070509d) for Wed, 2007 May 9
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Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Preserve America Presidential Awards
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For Immediate Release Office of the First Lady May 9, 2007

Mrs. Bush's Remarks at the Preserve America Presidential Awards The Rose
Garden

˙ /news/releases/2007/05/20070509-13.wm.v.html


3:02 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: Good afternoon, everyone. So good to see you all. I want to
welcome everyone to the White House -- members of the Cabinet that are
here, members of the Congress that have joined us, many members of the
administration. Thank you for joining us today. We've had a very
interesting and a historical week, which is a nice thing to do when --
ended the middle of the week in the Royal visit with this chance for us to
talk about our own history and ways we can protect it. As all of you know,
Queen Elizabeth was here for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, one of our
oldest and most iconic settlements in our country, and that was really fun.
So today it's interesting and fun for us to have the chance to be together
to recognize other historical preservation sites and areas in our country.

Distinguished guests, thank you all very much for coming.

In 2003, President Bush launched the Preserve America Initiative to
encourage communities to protect our cultural and natural heritage. The
goals of the initiative include a greater shared knowledge of our nation's
past, strengthened regional identities and pride, increased local
participation in preserving our country's cultural and natural heritage,
and support for the economic vitality of our communities.

Over the last four years, the initiative has awarded 68 grants to 68
excellent preservation organizations like The Mount, the home of Edith
Wharton, which I got to visit last spring.

For the last three years, Preserve America has also honored a history
teacher of the year, and these three history teachers are here with us:
Kathleen Keen, Rosanne Lichatin and Gerry Kohler. Where are they, actually?
There they are, over there, the three history teachers of the last three
years. (Applause.)

And each one of us know how important an excellent history teacher is to
our love of history. A lot of us can really trace our love of history back
to a wonderful teacher who made history come alive -- maybe it was a parent
also who loved history and loved to tell stories about it. So thank you all
for your great work inspiring kids.

Since President Bush announced the initiative, more than 600 cities and
towns have applied to become Preserve America Communities; 486 communities
have been honored with this distinction.

Last October, a Preserve America Summit was held in New Orleans to mark the
40th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, and many of the
organizations and groups that are here today were also our partners in that
summit.

The National Historic Preservation Act was signed by President Johnson in
1965, and the act launched the first coordinated federal effort to
safeguard our country's heritage. At the Preserve America Summit, we took
stock of the strides we've made over the last four decades. We learned how
businesses and foundations, educational institutions, governments and
private citizens -- what they can do to modernize our preservation efforts
so that we can be more effective in the future.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation evaluated scores of ideas
that emerged from that summit, and they've recommended 12 proposals to help
fill our obligations to care for the treasures we've inherited. And I know
that with the ACHP's meeting in the next couple of days, these proposals
will be discussed and approved.

One of our most important obligations, though, is making sure that the next
generation carries on this preservation work after us. During the Preserve
America Summit, I attended a youth program sponsored by Save Our History,
one of today's award recipients. High school students spoke of how much
they had enjoyed hands-on preservation projects in their own communities --
from revitalizing Denver's historic Colfax Avenue, to restoring a
traditional African American home in La Marque, Texas. The ACHP will
officially make our country's next generation of preservationists a top
priority at their meeting tomorrow.

Today, we honor the terrific work of this year's Preserve America
Presidential Award winners. Presenting the awards is the Chairman of the
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and a serious history buff
himself, John Nau, and he'll be joined in the presentations by the
Secretary of Interior, Dirk Kempthorne.

Since one of our winners is San Diego's USS Midway Museum, a World War
II-era aircraft carrier that preserves the history of our naval battles in
the Pacific, I should mention that Secretary Kempthorne and I visited
Midway Island in March. Midway is one of the islands in the Northwest
Hawaiian Island chain that President Bush declared a national marine
monument last year. This declaration protects 140,000 square miles of
pristine waters and thousands of rare aquatic species that live there.

On Midway Island, Secretary Kempthorne and I saw the World War II-era
military installations that are there, and we also saw marine and bird life
that's found nowhere else on Earth. We fed seals, we banded birds, and we
planted native grasses. And in fact, Secretary Kempthorne even refereed a
wrestling match between a White House official and Laysan albatross.
(Laughter.) The Secretary was a great travel companion, and I'm delighted
that he'll be here to help present these awards today.

I know I speak for President Bush when I congratulate each one of you, each
of our Preserve America Presidential Award winners. So to begin the
presentations, please welcome John Nau. (Applause.)

END 3:09 P.M. EDT
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