The AOSHS Board of Directors exerted significant efforts and resources to construct a museum from 1998 through 2007. Although many potential funding sources were explored by the board, sufficient funding never materialized for the proposed buildings for the museum. For the project as designed by a Wichita architectural firm, over $15 million was needed to construct the facility on a site to be provided by the City of Wichita.
After plans for the museum were scrapped in 2007, AOSHS’s current property at 704 W. Douglas Avenue became the center for AOSHS operations and the storage facility for the archives. For the next ten years, no progress was made with respect to establishing a museum. As recently as July 2017, the Board of Directors was calculating how long AOSHS could remain a viable organization and estimated it could remain solvent for five to six more years.
Fortunately, after that bleak forecast, DoDEA forged a partnership with AOSHS in the latter part of 2017. This partnership has been the catalyst for a resurgence of AOSHS as a vibrant organization. A museum with expanded archive storage opened at the Wichita location in the spring of 2021. Yearbooks and memorabilia/artifacts in the AOSHS archives continue to be scanned and photographed and made available online. The transformation from an organization struggling to survive to the vibrant organization it is today has been remarkable.
Membership dues and donations continue to be an important part of sustaining this momentum. The future will depend on the continuing development of the archives into perpetuity as there are never any financial guarantees. Please provide your support, spread the word, and help us find additional funding.