A BIT ABOUT THE MHPG

OUR STORY

We are a very young organization having been officially founded in early 2020 amid the historic COVID-19 pandemic. The creation of the MHPG represents the culmination of several years of work by the members of the board of directors and their work creating a number of events in Youngstown, Ohio as the "Ohio Factory Events Group". Our end goal has always been to form a non-profit organization designed to support historical reenacting and provide everything needed to ensure there will continue to be reenactments for many years to come. We have always believed an important component of this is giving reenacting a permanent home by obtaining land for hosting events that will provide historical reenacting with the foundation it has been sorely missing. Attention to detail and historical accuracy has been a major priority for us right alongside teamwork and cooperation in pursuit of a larger goal. We have set ambitious goals but we believe our mission is worth rallying around.

 

EDUCATION THROUGH EXPERIENCE. 

Reenactments are an opportunity to connect with the past by living it. So much of our history from the 18th to 20th century is reduced to small snippets of text which do little to convey the deeper story. This is a key difference between knowing history and understanding it. We are creating an immersive learning environment through public and private events of various time periods from 18th to 20th century. 

 

LIMITATIONS TO OVERCOME

Virtually all reenactments rely on borrowed or rented land to host events. Reenacting needs space to hold events and it currently owns no dedicated place of its own. While there has been a lot of support for these events, this dependence on borrowed land has been the demise of many great events and when good events die they often take many years of work and effort with them. This cycle keeps reenacting just treading water, barely keeping itself afloat. Changing ownership, attitudes and interests has uprooted as many events as it has created. This has also limited the ability of reenactments to reach their full potential. When good sites come along with long term arrangements, events flourish and grow, often in ways that benefit the surrounding communities which often goes beyond the educational benefits. This is what we want to see more of. Reenacting needs a dedicated property to purpose build and host events for years to come.

 

OUR GOAL

We are seeking to establish permanent, dedicated sites specifically built for historical reenactments, starting in the NE Ohio region, as it has proven to be a somewhat central location for a huge swath of the reenacting community. We want to build the home for historical reenacting and provide all the required resources to make those events grow to their maximum potential. 

What each site will ultimately look like will depend largely on the land we are able to acquire, but our ultimate goal is to build out each location into the ideal site for multiple eras with a main focus in 18th to 20th century historical reenactment and living history events.

 

OUR MISSION

We work to support and advance historical reenactment in the pursuit of educating the public through interactive hands-on experiences by sponsoring, hosting and presenting living history and reenacting events and providing purpose built, dedicated venues and other various resources.

 

 

 

OUR ORGANIZATION

We are a registered 501 (c) (3) Non-profit Organization in the state of Ohio. The organization was founded in spring of 2020, created from our collective experience running other events as far back as 2015 as well as decades of experience as historical reenactors. In our time running events so far, we have become known for our ability to find and build out unique locations that bring a new element into the overall experience. This organization will allow us to push this even further.

  

EFFICIENCY AND DEDICATION

We pursue our mission tirelessly and are very budget conscious. We work very hard to ensure as much of every donation as possible finds its way to fulfilling our purpose. We can not abide waste and will always work to ensure that a donation to this organization is used to maximum effect in the pursuit of our mission.

 

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EVENTS

We intend to facilitate both public events as well as private events since both play equally important roles in preserving and sharing history.

 

Public events are a great way to share history with the community at large. It allows everyone to come get a closer look at and experience history for themselves. 

 

Private events are more immersive events intended to take people as close as possible to the real experience, attendees at these events can come much closer to living the life of the people in the historical event being studied. Private, is a bit of a misnomer, as these event are open to the general public but there are restrictions in order to properly set the stage. Attendees are not required to be a member of any organization.  All attendees must wear appropriate attire and meet other criteria for the historical event being studied. These events are an important educational tool for dedicated historians.