Scottish Heritage USA is holding a special 60th Anniversary Gala Dinner on July 13 at the end of the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games to celebrate the organization’s Diamond Jubilee. A festive dinner, traditional Scottish music and song by Tryon, NC Master Fiddler Jamie Laval and Scottish Heritage USA minstrel Colin Grant Adams, stories of Robert Burns from the National Trust for Scotland’s Learning Manager Chris Waddell, and recognition of Scottish Heritage USA’s decades of success will make this an evening to remember for all. The event will be held at the Best Western Mountain Lodge in Banner Elk from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. The reception and dinner costs $85 per person for members and $100 per person for non-members. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.ScottishHeritageUSA.org
Sixty years ago, five founding fathers of today’s Scottish Heritage USA filed in New York for incorporation of a non-profit organization to “recognize and enhance original bonds of ancestral and national character among the peoples of Scotland and of North America; to disseminate knowledge of their respective cultural heritages, and to support the preservation of historic sites and maintain of centers of artistic and literary endeavor.” The organization has been headquartered in Pinehurst, NC for the past forty years.
From the genesis of Scottish Heritage USA’s founding in 1965, the organization has been committed to supporting a strong relationship with the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). It began with Scottish Heritage underwriting student exchanges between NTS’s Threave Gardens in Scotland and Longwoods Gardens in Pennsylvania. In 1974, the board approved $12,000 for an information center at the Georgian House at No. 7 Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, and later $30,000 to NTS for Georgian House renovations. That same year, the joint sharing of a tent at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games at McCrae’s Meadow in North Carolina. That tradition continues to this day, along with Scottish Heritage USA donating over $1.5 million to the National Trust for Scotland and its USA Foundation in the intervening years, including $300,000 for the Culloden Visitor’s Center, $250,000 for renovations of the Dwight Eisenhower suite at Culzean Castle and Gardens, and support for projects such creation of the online Robert Burns Library Collection, St. Kilda and Arran archeology, restoration of Hill House and Falkland Palace, the Glencoe Restoration project and numerous renovations to NTS properties, lands and museums for public access and use.
“Scottish Heritage USA’s work has not been limited to National Trust for Scotland projects. The organization has supported many heritage and cultural projects here in the US such as An Crios Greine global piping contest, Blue Ridge Pipes and Brass, Mill Prong Preservation, the Tartans Museum in Franklin NC, The Pipes of Christmas in New York, New Jersey and Boston, and American Scottish Foundation’s Tartan Week concerts at Bryant Park,” according to Scottish Heritage Usa President Peter Wilson. “One of our most visible projects in the US has been the sponsorship and management of the Scottish Cultural Village at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games each July. We also set aside a portion of our member funds to support summer camp scholarships for disadvantaged youth in highland dance, pipe and drum and Scottish fiddling.”
Scottish Heritage USA was founded in 1965 to recognize and strengthen the bonds of friendship between the peoples of Scotland and the United States. The non-profit association has members across North America, supporting partnership with the National Trust for Scotland as well as a variety of cultural and heritage programs, places, educational events, and scholarships.