Join Freedom's Way Heritage Association!

Membership in the Freedom’s Way Heritage Association (The Association) is open to individuals, towns and organizations. Through dues and donations we are able to continue the work of the heritage area. Every federal appropriation for the national heritage area effort must be matched dollar for dollar. The Association, therefore, must raise the needed match in order to continue the required work.

Membership entitles you to become part of the Freedom's Way National Heritage Area forum, receive special e-blasts, plus a Freedom's Way sticker for your car or building.

Minuteman, Thoreau Associate, Patriot's Circle and Golden Eagle Memberships provide opportunities to display your logos.

Annual Membership Categories Supporting Membership Categories

Individual $35
Family/Nonprofit/Community $50
Business Roundtable $100

Minuteman $250-499
Thoreau Associate $500-999
Patriot's Circle $1,000-4,999
Golden Eagle $5,000 +

To join via the mail, please use the form below.

Download Membership Form

If you prefer to make a donation:

DonateNow

The importance of becoming a member of Freedom’s Way Heritage Association.

Named by the federal legislation as the local coordinating entity, the Freedom’s Way Heritage Association is required to:

    1. Foster a close working relationship between the Secretary [Of the Interior] and all levels of government, the private sector, and local communities in the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire;
    1. Assist various local entities to preserve the special historic identity of the Heritage Area; and
    1. Manage, preserve, protect, and interpret the cultural, historic, and natural resources of the Heritage Area for the educational and inspirational benefit of future generations.

The Association is a grass-roots 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 1993 by a handful of citizens and town officials, to help preserve, protect and promote the shared history of the nationally significant resources of the region. Having been named as the cooperating entity for the purpose of fulfilling the requirements of the law, The Association will continue to form partnerships with local, regional, state, and federal governmental entities and with public and private sector organizations and individuals to ensure that a Cultural Heritage and Management Plan for the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area will be developed and that appropriate entities carry it out.

The Association Mission Statement
The mission of The Association is to weave together the stories of the land, the people and their ideas by using the common threads of significant open spaces and historic events. A strong sense of land stewardship is the legacy of the Native Americans, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Benton MacKaye, and scores of others. They have connected the use of the landscape to ideas about independence, individual rights, conservation, social justice, and democracy. Evidence of this connection is in the picturesque town commons, Shaker villages, Bronson Alcott’s Fruitlands, Thoreau’s walks through the countryside, and elsewhere. Having learned to cherish the native land, the Freedom’s Way towns now strive to inspire a deeper understanding and a sense of stewardship in children and adults.

The Goal
The goal of the Association is to promote interpretation of the region’s heritage through education, documentation, and stewardship using the facilities of local museums, historical societies, heritage sites and cultural centers.