Friends of VNMP want to expand out of Vicksburg

Published 11:59 pm Saturday, June 2, 2012

Bess Averett wants to expand the membership of Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park outside the boundaries of Warren County.

“I think there is great potential for Vicksburg to get interest from other areas of the country,” the executive director of the volunteer group told members of the Vicksburg Rotary Club a couple of weeks ago. “We need to tell people what we have here.”

“Gettysburg is a small town of 8,000 people, but their Friends group has more than 40,000 members from across the nation,” she said. “They are people who want to take part in preserving that battleground. I want to see the same thing happening here.”

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Averett said Vicksburg’s Friends organization has 50 members but is beginning to get attention from outside the county because of the sesquicentennial of the Siege of Vicksburg. She said the organization has received unsolicited donations from people living in other areas of the country who have seen the Friends website.