The Warhawk Museum has received a $50,000 grant from the John F. Nagle Foundation to help fund educational programs.
The museum’s executive director, Sue Paul, said this isn’t the first grant the John F. Nagle Foundation has given the museum, but it is the largest.
"They are really supporting everything that we do that is educational based, which is basically the museum,” she said. “There isn't anything that isn't educational here."
The money will help grow that purpose and keep teaching people, Paul said.
"It's dedicated to preserving that freedom is never free,” she said. "What better way than to come into a museum like this? It's so colorful. It's all original."
More than 3,000 school kids visit the museum on field trips each year.
"Frankly there isn't a lot of time left, teachers have told me, in the classroom to teach a lot about World War II,” Paul said. “A lot of teachers really depend on this museum."
Visitors learn about World War I, World War II and the Cold War Era through the people who experienced it. The museum exhibits are made up of journals, photos and other personal objects.
"We have a story back on one of the children's cabinets by a woman [who was] a child during World War II. It's her story - what it felt like when her father was missing in action and never came home," Paul said.
That is just one of the many stories preserved in the museum. Paul said having those personal stories makes learning about these times more real and it creates an emotional experience walking through the museum.
"Everything is very personal here,” she said. “There are binders on every cabinet to read about the individual whose memorabilia is preserved inside of that cabinet. Not just their military history, but pictures of their weddings, pictures of them as children. These are people these are not just objects inside cabinets. They're representing people.”