John Beach, Past President, announced the award to English and Matt Norman, our hosts for this year’s Holiday Party. The Normans spent over 6 years restoring The Meredith House at 417 Hillside Drive, created an outstanding website dedicated to their efforts, and successfully listed the house on the National Register. Matt is an evangelist for local preservation, included giving a Buckhead Heritage Speaker Series lecture last year.

Tamara Bazzle, Board Member Emeritus, announced the award to Ivan Allen, IV. Over many months, Ivan’s singular focus was working with neighbors of New Hope AME Church, members of Buckhead Heritage, foundations, and the general public to raise tens of thousands of dollars to complete the fencing surrounding the cemetery, restore existing monuments, and mark a large number of unmarked graves. This was an arduous, complicated, and sensitive effort. Ivan eventually worked with DL Henderson, an expert of African American cemeteries to help the congregation decide how they wanted to honor those buried in unmarked graves. This process is ongoing. Ivan worked to ensure that Pastor David Richards and the members of New Hope AME Church knew that their wishes were paramount. Ivan also worked closely with Beth Cook and Mike Ivey from PRUMC, which has a long history of volunteering at New Hope AME Church, in planning a major work day in the spring of 2021. He consulted closely with Ashley Shares of Oakland Cemetery to prioritize the restoration of monuments at New Hope Cemetery, and they had training sessions for volunteers who were interested in learning how to execute some monument restoration themselves.