A Door County schoolhouse museum docent is receiving a national award for her work
EPHRAIM - A stalwart of the Ephraim Historical Foundation's Pioneer Schoolhouse Museum is being recognized for her work with a national award.
Karen Ekberg will receive a 2024 Country School Association of America Service Award for her work at the 144-year-old schoolhouse. She will officially be recognized at the annual CSAA Conference held in June in Toledo, Ohio.
The Country School Association of America is a nonprofit national organization dedicated to preserving memories of, and educating people about, country schools and the early American educational experience.
Its Service Award recognizes individuals across the country who have demonstrated extraordinary efforts in the preservation, restoration and programming of historic school houses. The organization grants just two Service Awards each year, one to someone who lives within 100 miles of its annual conference site and the other to a person living outside that area.
Ekberg is a longtime member, volunteer and supporter of the Ephraim Historical Foundation, but her roots in Pioneer Schoolhouse run much deeper. She attended the historic school as a child, and her mother, Helen Sohns, was a teacher there before it closed in 1949 to make way for a new school building in a new location.
For many years Ekberg served as a docent in the schoolhouse, carrying on her mother’s legacy by delivering programming for visitors of all ages and giving them one-of-a-kind insights into the daily life of the building.
A news release from the historical foundation noted that Ekberg receiving the award is timely because the foundation will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, and Pioneer Schoolhouse is the main reason the foundation was started.
The schoolhouse was built on Moravia Street in 1880 and served students ages 4 to 20 in what would be grades one through eight; the foundation's website says the range was because of sporadic attendance in the rural community. When it closed in 1949, Ekberg's mother, Sohns, worked with fellow community member Warren Davis to preserve the building, leading to the formation of the historical foundation.
That sense of historical preservation has continued in the community. The historical foundation operates five seasonal museums, including the schoolhouse, that are historic buildings in the village and has preserved others, including the home built in 1890 that since 2018 has served as its Svalhus Research Library. The other museums are Goodletson Cabin, Iverson House, Anderson Barn and Anderson Store.
The Ephraim Historical Foundation museums, along with walking tours and tram tours of historical sites in the village, open for the 2024 season May 23. For more information, call 920-854-9688 or visit ephraim.org.
Contact Christopher Clough at 920-562-8900 or [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Docent at Ephraim schoolhouse museum earns national award for her work
