The Plant City Photo Archives and History Center is now offering the Jr. Archivists Club program. The program is for children in the 9 to 14 year old range who want to learn about how to become a History Detective. The program meets on Mondays at the History Center located at 106 S. Evers St. in downtown Plant City from 4 to 5 p.m.

The Jr. Archivists Club is open to all students who attend public school and homeschool and is free of charge. Homeschool students can request the option of meeting during the day.

The informative program utilizes a four-volume series called Be A History Detective. Each course focuses on a separate way that children can be history detectives. The first course is titled Be a Photograph Detective.

The Jr. Archivists Club is an initiative of the Plant City Photo Archives and History Center and is funded partially by Unity in Community, the Rotary Club of Plant City and the Photo Archives.

Executive Director, Gil Gott said, “At the Photo Archives and History Center we use photographic and documentary evidence to write our stories, articles and monographs. It did not take long for us to realize that much of what we are using was not being produced today. We are losing our history.”

Gott added, “Our goal is to inculcate in our youth today the importance of preserving photos, documents and any available data to understand our past when we look back at it in the future. The method we decided on is the History Detectives concept in the Jr. Archivists Club.

Archivists make it possible for historians to write about the past.”

The Jr. Archivists Club is a program that was specially designed by Gott who was unable to find a similar program. Gott spent months searching for a similar program. When that search failed, he developed the program himself. The goal of the Jr. Archivists Club is to teach the Junior Archivist how to find clues to history in searching the details in photographs.

Students who register for the six-week course (one hour per week), will receive a tote bag, magnifying glass, lanyard, ID badge and a notebook. This is a great opportunity to join a club, become a history detective and learn about the history of Plant City and its surrounding communities.

For information, visit www.plantcityphotoarchives.org or call 754-1578.