Twenty Years of Partnership: The Johnstown Flood National Memorial and Forest Hills Elementary School Team Up to Prepare for the Flood Anniversary

Luminaries cast a solemn glow in the twilight at Johnstown Flood National Memorial.

NPS Photo

By Elizabeth Shope

Friday, May 31, 2019 marks 130 years since the Great Johnstown Flood of 1889. On that fateful day, the South Fork Dam broke emptying the lake and hurtling the water fourteen miles downstream towards Johnstown. Every year on May 31, the Johnstown Flood National Memorial lights 2,209 luminary bags that are placed on the remains of the South Fork Dam and behind the Visitor Center for each victim of the flood. The Johnstown Flood National Memorial and Forest Hills Elementary School have been teaming up for twenty years to prepare the bags. Each year, the fifth grade students write the name of a flood victim on each bag.

There are some students who have filled bags from Pre-K through sixth grade. The older children in particular understand the significance of the flood and the important role they play by lending a helping hand. Many of the students visit the park on May 31 to see the bags lit and the end result of their work. Some even try to find the particular name they wrote!

This special partnership not only helps the park prepare for the event, but it also gives students the opportunity to learn about the history that happened right in their back yard. The location of the school is approximately where the far end of the lake was. Many of the homes in the Forest Hills School District were built in what would have once been lake.

On May 20, 2019, Stephen Clark, Superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania National Parks, presented an arrowhead plaque to the fifth grade class in recognition of their many years of assistance with this special project.

It is important to keep this history alive in the local community, especially with the youth. It is meaningful that we share this bond of remembering the 2,209 victims of the Johnstown Flood.