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Gettysburg Foundation
Volume 26, Issue 1
Page 11
don’t force people to give any particular
amount. If it is a $32 membership we
value it. We don’t ever want to forget the
importance of that as an organization. I
always think about an older lady in Chicago
who, years ago, used to send us a check for
about $20 every year. Her donation meant
a lot. She never came here, but she would
always write us notes on a little piece of
paper, and it really meant something to
her to be a Friend and to me that she was
a Friend! It is an honor to be partners with
the National Park Service. If you want to do
something that makes you feel good, then
this is the organization for you to join.
GF: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER SOME OF THE
IMPORTANT FUTURE GOALS FOR THE GETTYSBURG
FOUNDATION?
BJF: I am concerned about our younger
generation. My generation is an aging
generation that made all this happen. It will
be a challenge to make the education and
preservation of this place interesting for
younger people. And are we? I don’t know.
There will always be fun stuff to do. If you
want to come and paint fences and get
dirty and hot carrying fence rails and bring
your kids you can do that. Preservation
work is ongoing, and so there will never
be a time that we don’t have more work
to do. We will always have fun events,
always have speakers. This kind of work is
a solid foundation for the things we have
to offer. I just hope that the kind of work
we do now will be engaging to the younger
generations. Everybody doesn’t have to have
big bucks. Service means so much to us. I
want people to join to get the passion for
this. I hope that I have instilled enough in
the people that come to these events and
Friends across the country to continue this
momentum.
GF: WHEN YOU ARE NOT WORKING FOR THE
FRIENDS WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
BJF: I have always loved reading. As a child
my mother would read to me before bed.
Once I learned to read, she would sit on the
edge of my bed as I read to her every night.
I am still an avid reader today. I love to
drive my tractor and mow the grass. I have
a John Deer and I pull the mower behind
the tractor. I can’t climb the fences anymore,
which was a blow to my ego, but I can’t so I
got over that. I love to be outdoors. I like to
travel. I like to keep up relationships. I like
to see my cousins from Indiana, and my
high school friends at our reunions. I like
learning new things on the computer. I like
to keep current with that and learn, I’m no
guru but I like to learn what I can.
GF: WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST HOPE FOR THE
FUTURE OF THE FRIENDS?
BJF: My hope is to keep forever ignited the
flame of passion to preserve and always
value our friendship with the National
Park Service. The NPS has an enormous
number of places and responsibilities, but
a much smaller financial capability to care
for everything, so we have the opportunity
to be good and loyal partners with them
in every way that we can. That is my
greatest hope—that we can always have the
capability to be a good partner.
“My generation is an aging generation that made all this happen.
It will be a challenge to make the education and preservation
of this place interesting for younger people.”
Founding Executive Director Vickie Greenlee
and Barbara fundraising at a First Corps event
in the mid 1990s
Barbara with Friends at the Rupp House on
Remembrance Day in the mid 2000s