How Do You Say Thanks?

For what are you truly thankful?

Most people will consider this question to a greater or lesser degree this holiday weekend. Believe it or not, a big part of the mission of the Kansas Oil Museum is to help people answer that very question. However, it maybe more beneficial to consider it from a slightly different perspective; how do you say thank you?

This is really the only time of the year where we consider the plight of the pilgrims and how they overcame the odds (with help from Native Americans) to establish a New World. They are the practical beginning of this great nation. Every year we bring out the pilgrim hats, carve up the turkey, and say “thank you” to the pilgrims.

Now you might question whether or not we actually say thank you to the pilgrims. After all, when families go around the table stating what they are thankful for, I doubt very seriously that pilgrims come up very often. However, we do say thank you in a real and meaningful way; we remember them!

I believe the greatest way you can say thank you is to remember someone. Remember who they are, what they did, and how they impacted the lives of others. Aren’t we saying we are thankful for our spouse when we remember an anniversary, birthday, or Valentine’s Day!

We say thank you to the pilgrims by remembering them. We say thank you to our veterans by remembering them. We especially say thank you when we take steps to preserve and protect their memory. When we become torchbearers of another person’s legacy, we are saying THANK YOU!

The Kansas Oil Museum is dedicated to being a diligent torchbearer of the legacy of the people of Butler County and the Kansas oil and gas industry. We preserve and promote the people, artifacts and information that established the community and made it what it is today. We are also actively engaged in the community to record for future generations the history that is being made every single day.

Part of that engagement is our partnerships with other entities and especially public schools. We just finished the first semester of our on campus pilot program with El Dorado Middle School and Oil Hill Elementary School. This pilot program has involved taking artifacts and activities into the classrooms to teach history. We also just completed a partnership with El Dorado High School where senior history class students led all of the El Dorado 3rd grade students on a bus tour to 15 historic stops throughout the community.

These programs and others are how we say thank you. Thank you to the pioneers who opened this land. Thank you to the founding fathers of this community. Thank you to the movers and shakers who made this community great. And thank you to the citizens of today who are striving to make El Dorado, Butler County and Kansas even greater!

This Thanksgiving don’t forget to say thanks by remembering those people who have given you the opportunities you have today! This is the mission of the Kansas Oil Museum and we invite you to join us this holiday season.

© 2015 Warren Martin. All Rights Reserved.