The Keystone Marker Trust is actively seeking funds that will allow us to help communities restore and re-install their Markers. We especially seek to encourage towns who affirm the Keystone Marker Trust Principles.
Municipalities, organizations and individuals from across the Commonwealth have written to express their support of the Keystone Marker Trust’s efforts to restore and replicate the historic keystone markers. Several of those letters of support appear below. If you love the keystone markers too, please let us know! Send us a letter of support. A template letter of support is below. Questions? Feel free to contact us.
See an article about the KMT’s work in Lancaster County in the Lancaster Farming News. Also, see WTAJ’s news feature on the KMT.
Sample Letter of Support
Return to jatogr@embarqmail.com or mail to 4020 Prospect Hill Lane, Pottstown, PA 19464 (IF ORGANIZATION OR MUNICIPALITY—PUT ON LETTERHEAD)
To whom it may concern:
Please accept this letter in support of the Keystone Marker Trust’s (KMT) application for funding to facilitate marker adoption, repair and installation by towns, organizations, and individuals across the Commonwealth.
(IF ORGANIZATION) Our organization, (ORG NAME), has as its mission (ORG MISSION); (IF INDIVIDUAL) My name is and I live in (TOWN).
(WE/I) have a deep interest in Pennsylvania’s future. (WE/I) recognize Pennsylvania’s need for new investment in the multiple senses of that word both from within and outside state borders. Pennsylvania needs to attract new industry and retain and grow existing industry by setting itself apart from other investment-hungry states.
- Pennsylvania needs to enhance tourism by marketing its unique places in an equally-unique way accessible to technology-savvy visitors, most of whom arrive by car.
- Pennsylvania needs a rebirth of civic pride and a re-commitment of its citizens to responsibility for the place they call home. As state resources to care for its infrastructure become increasingly stretched, a citizenry cognizant of the cumulative value of even small acts of stewardship becomes increasingly necessary.
WE/I see the program being established by the Keystone Marker Trust as an economical, long-lasting way to address all of these needs while at the same time creating employment across the state and reducing the state’s own infrastructure burden for years to come.
A recent DCNR report written by renowned Urban Land Institute Senior Fellow Ed McMahon decried Pennsylvania’s gateways as lacking in ways that negatively impact outside investment, tourism, and civic pride. Emblematic of this deficiency is our communities’ ongoing loss of their most recognizable and distinctly Pennsylvania feature: the much-photographed, century-old keystone markers that once guarded all of their entrances. The Keystone Marker Trust is seeking only modest support to augment the donations and volunteer labor they have marshaled from across the Commonwealth. WE/I strongly encourage your support of their program.
Sincerely,
(your name)
(your title if applicable)
Thanks to all who have written letters of support!
PennDOT
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Preservation Pennsylvania
Urban Land Institute–Ed McMahon
Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation
Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area
Paul Daniel Marriott and Associates
Representative William Adolph (R-165th District and House Appropriations Chairman)
Senator Andrew Dinniman (D-19th District)
Representative Jim Cox (R-129th District)
Representative Tom Murt (R-152nd District)
Representative Mark Keller (R-86th District)
Franklin County Historical Society
Jonestown Borough
Lewisburg Borough
Juniata County
Highspire, Pennsylvania
Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor
Guilford Township Supervisors
Borough of Duncannon
Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region
Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area
Borough of Elizabethtown
Hellertown Borough
Mountville Borough (Mayor’s Letter)
Mountville Borough (Parks and Rec Letter)