Karen Wyatt Drevo will present a program titled, Maria Rodaway: Prairie Pioneer on September 21, 3:00 p.m., at Saint Benedict Center, four miles north of Schuyler. This presentation is made possible by Humanities Nebraska, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and Saint Benedict Center as part of the HN Speakers Bureau.
Karen Wyatt Drevo
Maria (portrayed by her great-great granddaughter Karen Wyatt Drevo in period attire) looks back at her life as a prairie pioneer in Otoe County, Nebraska, where she homesteaded in 1867. Maria crossed the Atlantic Ocean with seven children to reunite her family after a 7½ year separation. She endured grasshoppers, hail, drought, tornadoes, blizzards, and the loss of her husband and six of her 13 children as she worked to become a citizen and a landowner in a new country. Resilient and resourceful, she lived a life of usefulness to her family and large circle of friends with her loving deeds and kind acts, delivering babies and nursing the sick.
Maria Rodaway: Prairie Pioneer is one of approximately 300 programs offered through the Humanities Nebraska Speakers Bureau. The more than 165 available speakers include acclaimed scholars, writers, musicians, storytellers and folklorists on topics ranging from pioneer heritage to ethics and law to international and multicultural issues, making it the largest humanities speakers bureau in the nation.
Speakers are available to any non-profit organization in Nebraska. Each program lasts 30 minutes to an hour, plus a question-and-answer period.
The most frequent users of the HN Speakers Bureau are primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, museums and historical societies, agencies for the elderly, rural organizations, churches, arts organizations and ethnic organizations. Humanities Nebraska sponsors the largest Speakers Bureau program in the U.S. according to the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For information detailing the available speakers and guidelines for booking them, please access our website at www.humanitiesnebraska.org (Speakers section) or contact Humanities Nebraska at 215 Centennial Mall South, Suite 330, Lincoln, NE 68508, phone (402) 474-2131, fax (402) 474-4852 or e-mail info@humanitiesnebraska.org.
There is no Admission Fee. A free will offering is requested. For more information, call St. Benedict Center 402-352-8819 or visit our website event page.