Longtime former Cullman County Museum curator Drew Green is among a handful of statewide honorees to be recognized for the role they play in promoting local tourism and travel.
Green, alongside five other industry professionals from throughout the state, was named a North Alabama “String of Pearls” leader last month by the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association. The designation, according to the regional nonprofit, aims “to recognize North Alabama’s cornerstone professionals in the tourism and travel industry” at the local and community level.
“It’s a wonderful organization — this year is their 60th anniversary — and I was really honored to be included,” said Green, who’s been retired from his museum director’s position since July. “They have really promoted north Alabama. I was especially honored because all of the people I was selected with are such great people. I felt like I was the inferior one in that group.”
The Cullman County Museum is housed in Cullman’s Warehouse District in a replica of the former home of city founder John G. Cullmann. Green served as museum director from 2012 until his retirement this year, curating local history exhibits, artifacts and memorabilia, as well as offering hands-on tours and learning opportunities, while archiving and preserving the written record of the Cullman area’s rich and varied past.
The “String of Pearls” leadership designation was conceived to commemorate the role that historians and other knowledgable local leaders serve in shining a spotlight on Alabama communities’ history and traditions. Spearheaded in the 1960s by AMLA co-founder Dick Ordway, a former Decatur Chamber of Commerce director, the organization formed through mutual agreements between leaders in Decatur, Huntsville, Florence, Sheffield, Athens, Scottsboro and Cullman, who coordinated to promote tourism and travel across cities and communities in the Tennessee River area.
“Even back then, we saw North Alabama had a number of quality destinations laid out across the region next to the Tennessee River like a string of pearls,” Ordway once said of the AMLA’s early endeavor to draw attention to the area. That concept, in turn, provided “the cornerstone for the creation of AMLA, and [Ordway’s] vision is what the “String of Pearls” recognition is based on,” the organization said in its statement.
In addition to Green, other “String of Pearls” honorees this year include:
— Sandy Thompson, Alabama Veterans Museum (Athens).
— Jennifer Moore, Huntsville/Madison County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
— Cassie Medley, Franklin County Chamber of Commerce.
— Nanda Patel, Gallery at 808 (Gadsden).
— Teresa White Taylor, Yedla Management Company (Huntsville).