We’ve been working on the message that the Historical Society of Sarasota County wants to get out to our community. Because so many of our new residents, and almost all of our visitors, can’t see the past. Can’t understand our quirks, our fondness for fields of cattle and the scent of orange blossoms. Heck, maybe they don’t know why Main Street just… stops.

It’s that time of year. Well, really, that time of every-other-year, when the community comes together the show their support of the nonprofit charities that surround us and supplement our lives here in paradise. The Giving Challenge, offering participants a chance to donate, and even to double their donation, is April 15 noon to April 16 noon this year. HSoSC is a “charter member” of this event, having been one of only 100 nonprofits invited to join the very first Challenge.

And here is why we teach about the past:

We are living in a place that is in danger of forgetting itself.

History doesn’t disappear all at once—it erodes. A field becomes a parking lot. A landmark becomes a memory. And before long, we’re left asking not just what changed, but who we are now.

If we lose the story of this town—how it came to be, why it matters—we lose something harder to rebuild than any structure: identity.

But this is not a eulogy. It’s a moment.

From April 15 at noon to April 16 at noon, we have 24 hours—the Giving Challenge—to come together and say: this place matters. Its history matters. Its character matters.

This is our chance to stand for continuity in a time of change. To honor what came before by investing in what remains.

If we don’t tell our story, it will be paved over.

Let’s not let that happen. Help us keep the past part of our present and our future by joining us at the Giving Challenge Wednesday April 15 at noon, until Thursday at noon.