Alabama Heritage features lively articles and rare images of Alabama's past. » Alabama Heritage » Current Issue — Winter 2004

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For the past several days Alabama school principals, superintendents, and librarians have received a surprise as Alabama Heritage magazine has announced that all public and private K-12 schools in the state have been given subscriptions to the magazine, courtesy of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.

The nonprofit magazine, published by The University of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Archives and History, has been winning local, regional and national awards since its founding in 1986. Its lively articles and rare images of Alabama’s past have made Alabama Heritage a favorite with history enthusiasts around the state and beyond.

The gift comes at a time when the recent state budget crisis has K-12 and higher education competing for limited funding. With this one contribution, Blue Cross provides critical support to the university-based magazine and simultaneously offers a valuable new resource to K-12.

Alabama Heritage will be available to teachers and students in over 1,800 schools beginning this month with the Winter 2004 issue. The magazine will give a much needed update to many of the libraries throughout the state that are struggling for more recent reference materials.

“Alabama Heritage is a wonderful teaching tool,” said Margie Sumlin, principal and history teacher at The Murray School in Mobile. An Alabama Heritage subscriber for years, she was delighted to learn that the magazine will now be available in her classroom. Scanning through the winter issue that just arrived, she found numerous parallels to the lesson plans she has coming up. “The photographs are so excellent. The visuals work in our favor,” she said, explaining that students who struggle with reading will find the images in Alabama Heritage very helpful in understanding the material.

Education has always been the key goal of the magazine. “I truly believe that children who grow up loving their state’s history will become adults who care about their state’s future,” said Alabama Heritage editor Donna Cox. “This is why we sought a sponsor to get the magazine within reach of every student and teacher in the state.”

The contribution by Blue Cross reasserts the company’s time-honored dedication to education. Since 1999, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama has supported the Alabama Reading Initiative with its goal of 100 percent literacy among public school students. The company’s Community Relations organization is also involved in tutoring, summer school grants, teacher certification program scholarships, and support for the arts, math, and sciences in schools.