WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

1
00:00:03.360 --> 00:00:08.040
the national medal for Museum and
Library Services is the nation's highest

2
00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:12.920
honor for libraries and museums that are
serving their communities in exceptional

3
00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:19.480
ways National Czech and Slovak Museum
and Library president and CEO Gail n and

4
00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:24.279
Community member Bob schaer traveled to
Washington from Cedar Rapids Iowa to

5
00:00:24.279 --> 00:00:29.279
receive the national medal and spoke to
ymls about how the museum impacts the

6
00:00:29.279 --> 00:00:34.320
community the national Czech and Slovak
Museum and library was founded in about

7
00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:39.800
1978 we serve a broad based community of
course we have the Cedar Rapids

8
00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:44.200
Community we have the founders the the
people of Czech and Slovak Heritage but

9
00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:47.600
in a city of Cedar Rapids size which is
about

10
00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.120
125,000 maybe a larger metro area of
about

11
00:00:51.120 --> 00:00:56.359
250,000 we're very important um part of
the cultural Community we are an anchor

12
00:00:56.359 --> 00:01:00.399
cultural institution but then we're a
national museum and so we we have a

13
00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:06.960
national con audience across the
country Jack Village is an ethnic uh

14
00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:13.520
commercial District where all the the
people would come into town to do their

15
00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:18.520
uh business they'd come in to bring in
their things to sell and they would come

16
00:01:18.520 --> 00:01:22.680
in to buy the things they needed for the
next week they'd probably stop in and

17
00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:27.680
have a little drink they'd meet their
friends so it was a commercial area and

18
00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:32.680
it was also I think a social magnet well
that little uh commercial District in

19
00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:36.680
Cedar Rapids the Czech Village uh had
kind of fallen on decline as the heavy

20
00:01:36.680 --> 00:01:41.200
industry of Cedar Rapids declined jobs
went away that first generation of

21
00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:47.280
immigrants aged their kids went off to
school often times didn't come back um

22
00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.360
and that's when we bought our little
building that used to be a pharmacy from

23
00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:58.119
1901 so we U bought that in 1975 opened
up the store pretty quickly got drafted

24
00:01:58.119 --> 00:02:04.159
into the effort to revitalize the this
Czech Village well Czech Village was

25
00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:09.560
really part of why the museum exists
this is the area this is the base this

26
00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:15.840
is why they built a museum so it's a
very close relationship uh you know we

27
00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:22.120
work together on things and uh try to
you know improve both of us try to

28
00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:28.560
improve each other the flood of June
2008 uh came about from a a terrible

29
00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:33.480
winter we knew that be flooding but
there had been flooding you know when

30
00:02:33.480 --> 00:02:38.200
you have a river running through town oh
that flood was one of those amazing

31
00:02:38.200 --> 00:02:43.239
events uh you know uh they had talked
about the chance of flooding but you

32
00:02:43.239 --> 00:02:47.879
know weren't quite sure how bad it would
be and sure enough it inundated the

33
00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:53.239
whole neighborhood know multi-block area
and uh you could

34
00:02:53.239 --> 00:03:00.519
imagine that jumble after we came back
into the building it was very surreal

35
00:03:00.519 --> 00:03:07.000
image with shelving kind of tilted at
odd angles and but strangely some things

36
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.080
through you know the surface tension of
water were just stuck to the shelves at

37
00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:17.040
an angle about like
this there were very difficult times in

38
00:03:17.040 --> 00:03:21.840
the very beginning and uh getting back
into the building checking on artifacts

39
00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:26.720
that we hadn't removed to see if you
know what was safe what was damaged the

40
00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:31.040
building needed to get cleaned out so
that mold didn't get in you know into

41
00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:36.640
the building that was our big concern it
was obvious quickly that we had you know

42
00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:43.400
massive damage that was going to cost
millions of dollars to fix and uh I say

43
00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:49.040
that on one side but on the other side
we never hesitated we never hesitated we

44
00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:52.879
were always going to come back there
were lots of decisions to make to get

45
00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:58.040
there but we were always going to come
back we found very found out very early

46
00:03:58.040 --> 00:04:02.560
that it couldn't be a Museum again where
it stood we couldn't ensure our

47
00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:06.280
artifacts we couldn't ensure anyone
else's artifacts that would come from

48
00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:11.319
another Museum and in the end we
actually moved it we lifted it up and we

49
00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:18.759
moved it about 480 ft and lifted it up
uh 11 ft higher than it sat when it was

50
00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:24.440
flooded the relationship I think between
the check Village and the museum has

51
00:04:24.440 --> 00:04:30.479
always been a great one and and one
that's I think has been not only an well

52
00:04:30.479 --> 00:04:34.080
self-supporting and we always felt that
and that was one of the main reasons why

53
00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:39.120
it was pushed to open up a museum was
not only to preserve that culture but

54
00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.320
also to give visitors to the area
something more to do than just shop

55
00:04:43.320 --> 00:04:47.160
People Want it All you know they want
the full experience they they would like

56
00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:51.280
to see a museum but they also want to
shop they want to eat they want to taste

57
00:04:51.280 --> 00:04:57.320
every facet of the culture the flood of
2008 changed the museum in in dramatic

58
00:04:57.320 --> 00:05:04.680
ways our mission had been more about
being the premier Museum and Library you

59
00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:08.680
know about history and culture of the
Czechs and slovaks in the United States

60
00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:13.960
but we dug down deeper into coming with
a mission that was to inspire people of

61
00:05:13.960 --> 00:05:17.600
all backgrounds it's about Czech and
Slovak history and culture but it's

62
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:23.880
about American too it's about being an
American so we want people to take the

63
00:05:23.880 --> 00:05:28.759
stories to get the lessons and the
values out of the struggles for freedom

64
00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:35.280
and identity and family community human
dignity that these people have had and

65
00:05:35.280 --> 00:05:40.759
uh learned from
it