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Staff Writer
Students will have the chance to look back in time next week during “Discover Waco’s Past.”
Emily Carrington, director of programming for the Historic Waco Foundation, and Mary Duty, Waco History Project board chairwoman, will speak about Waco’s history.
The event is from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday in the Bill Daniel student center den and is hosted by Student Government.
It is free to the public and refreshments will be provided.
Carrington said she will give a brief history of Waco, including what artifacts and places from history are still in existence around town.
The speech will have a slide presentation with pictures.
“We’re really excited to have the opportunity to talk to Baylor students about the history of Waco, and this is our first chance to participate in something like this,” Carrington said.
She will talk about different significant points in Waco’s past, including the earliest part of its history and the first settlers in the Waco area.
She will also discuss the Waco Suspension Bridge and the importance of the Brazos River.
The Historic Waco Foundation offers daily tours different times of the year of four Victorian era homes in Waco, and Carrington will touch on these homes and their importance, as well as on the Victorian era of Waco history, when the houses came about.
“The [1953] tornado will probably be the end bookend of what I talk about,” she said.
Carrington said what is important about this event is that it gives students a connection to Waco.
A lot of Baylor students are not from Waco, and a lot of Baylor students are not from Texas, she said.
“We think it’s a great opportunity to engage them with their community so they can enjoy their four years here,” Carrington said.
Discover Waco’s Past is a portion of a larger program for the 2013-2014 year called Discover Waco.
Discover Waco includes three sections — Waco past, present and future.
Discover Waco’s Present will happen from 3 to 4 p.m. Nov. 19 at Dr Pepper Hour and will focus on businesses around Waco and events and opportunities going on now in the city.
Discover Waco’s Future will occur next semester at an undetermined date and will look at the expansion of the city with the riverfront and new stadium.
“The purpose of Discover Waco is to get students interested in Waco,” said Katy sophomore Lawren Kinghorn, public relations committee chair for student government. “There’s a huge history that we don’t know about. Being students at Baylor, we’re really involved on campus and we don’t get outside the Baylor Bubble. And there’s so much more to learn about Waco that we just don’t realize.”
Student government wishes to get Baylor students involved in Waco history, Kinghorn said.
“Being students, we’re really isolated,” she said. “There’s an opportunity for outreach that we really haven’t taken advantage of. There’s this whole community that we don’t know anything about.”
