A Watershed Year for Susquehanna National Heritage Area
As we begin 2020, SNHA looks back on 2019 as a watershed year for our organization and our region. Last January we shared four key priorities for the year ahead. Here's how we did with those goals:
- Continue to fight for Congressional designation of our region as the Susquehanna National Heritage Area - ACHIEVED! Lancaster and York Counties were designated as America's 55th National Heritage Area on March 12th, 2019.
- Expand public programs and activities at the river - ACHIEVED! 71 educational programs offered, 629 local students hosted on field trips, new SUSQ Camp and paddle programs launched.
- Launch interpretative boat tours on the river - ACHIEVED!
SNHA River Discovery Boat Tours launched in July with 118 tours and 1000+ riders by season's end in October.
- Work with regional tourism partners to promote the Susquehanna as a visitor destination - ACHIEVED! 28,641 visitors welcomed at our visitor centers, new marketing efforts launched, river featured as attraction in regional tourism guides.
And there's more to come in 2020. We'll expand our boat tour schedule, seek a bigger boat for future seasons, add new exhibits and trail improvements at the Zimmerman Center, host exciting new events at Columbia Crossing, launch mobile tours along the river, work with partners to save the historic Mifflin House site, and begin a National Heritage Area Management Plan process to guide our work for years to come. Thank you for supporting these efforts to make our region a better place to live and our river a better place to visit. See you on the Susquehanna!
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