SOHO's Advocacy

On Television, Online, & at the Newsstand!!
By Alana Coons

Wells Fargo pulled out all the stops for Elsa Sevilla's San Diego's Historic Places segment on historic stage stations of San Diego County. A stagecoach and team of horses were brought out to Vallecito stage station for a reenactment. (Seated) Driver George Lane, Elsa Sevilla, (standing on coach) Bruce Coons; (standing left to right) Charlene Lane, Allan Peterson (Wells Fargo), Casey Gill, Wells Fargo & Co. Museum Director, Sam Trego, Hank Hooyerink. Photo courtesy Elsa Sevilla

For over a year now SOHO has been a sponsor and supporter of Elsa Sevilla's monthly series San Diego's Historic Places on KPBS that focuses on our county's history through our historic sites, landscapes and the people who make up so much of San Diego's past. SOHO supports the program through interviews, historic photos and site scouting when needed. We applaud KPBS for producing this show that rings so true to their stated purpose "to educate, inform, entertain and empower their audience by acquiring, producing and delivering high quality programming, which is of value and worthy of support." We think San Diego's Historic Places does just that, and, coupled with another favorite, Ken Kramer's About San Diego, KPBS clearly understands its San Diego audience whose interests are centered on the shared heritage of the communities it serves. Please check your local KPBS listings, tune in, and let them know with an email or a call that you appreciate this type of programming and want to see even more. Let them know they are on the right track in celebrating our heritage.

Video has become a powerful tool for our advocacy and education, as well as providing content for our web sites. We see it as an effective mechanism for fundraising for promoting the important message of preserving our heritage. Our next move in raising the bar will be to purchase a professional 3-chip flash memory high definition camcorder. If you would like to donate to a fund to help us accomplish this, rest assured it would be a donation well spent. We need to raise approximately $6,000 for this effort.

Have you seen SOHO's YouTube channel yet? Video is a powerful medium and our non-profit YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/SOHOSanDiego helps us deliver our message with impact. Stop by our channel and while you're there, join us as a subscriber, and please, share our links on your own facebook page or blog. Using social networking, and the Internet in general, is a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives. Help us spread the news about our newest endeavour.

The Internet has provided a great venue for us to raise awareness and promote our message of historic preservation, special events and tours, and breaking news on specific actions such as legal or legislative rulings. We have also seen clearly the success an effective online campaign can bring to our events. Sold out tours and record crowds are a direct response to our message being heard through both traditional and online marketing. Now we need to use these same tools to focus even more on attracting new members and supporters.

To promote historic preservation in the digital world we now live in, and to take full advantage of these almost limitless opportunities, we need more funding. The biggest expense lies in the purchase of equipment and professional expertise, and we are asking for donations in support of this work. Who knows with your financial support maybe Our Heritage will be seen on KPBS one day too!

2010 - Volume 41

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

From the Editor

The Cosmopolitan Hotel: A Resurrection of the Past

Most Endangered List of Historic Resources

Lead Paint: What's at Stake?

The California Theatre Under Siege

10-Year Anniversary at the Whaley House

Marston House - First Year Retrospective

People In Preservation Winners

An Evening Well Spent at PIP

Preservation Community

Reflections