The NAPAC museum continues to &uot;celebrate life&uot; as it reaches its first anniversary at its Main Street location.

The National Association for the Preservation of African-American Culture has operated a museum at the old post office on Main Street since Sept. 11, 1999.

The first year &uot;has gone by fast,&uot;&160;said Shirley Wheatley, interim director of the museum. &uot;It has been very busy with Elderhostel, barge groups, school groups and international guests,&uot; she said.

One of the biggest challenges for the museum since it first opened has been securing funding, NAPAC members said.

&uot;We’ve been very lucky that the state and federal government provided money to fix the building,&uot; said Kathy Moody, a member of the NAPAC board.

But local funding is more difficult to find, she said.

The City of Natchez is allowing NAPAC to use the post office building for 10 years as long as NAPAC maintains it.

City officials have also offered other help such as allowing Wheatley, who is a city tourism employee, to work some afternoons at the museum, Moody said. Local businesses have also helped, Moody said.

Adams County’s contribution has been smaller, but county officials did help by storing some of the exhibits and helped with the move to the post office location, Moody said.

Wheatley said she had asked the county for more assistance this summer but was told the board could not make donations to private groups. But Wheatley said she hopes the county will help however they can, such as through in-kind services. &uot;Any way that they can (help), I’m sure that they will,&uot; she said.

NAPAC designed the museum to depict scenes from African-American life primarily from the late 1800s to World War II.

&uot;It’s a celebration — a celebration of what life was like and some of the players in life during that time,&uot; Wheatley said.

At least 1,000 people have visited the museum during the past year. Many of the guests are not locals but tourists, including some from all over the world.

&uot;Truthfully most of the local people who need to come see it don’t,&uot; Moody said. &uot;It’s used more by tourists and appreciated by tourists, and we are able to reach quite a good number of school children.&uot;

Wheatley said she knows it is an often used saying but museum guests often are &uot;hoping that they have an opportunity to see the total picture&uot; of life in Natchez, including the African-American history.

NAPAC first opened its museum in 1991, in the old Water Works building on Market Street.

The organization moved the museum to the post office building after the old location was damaged by a storm in February 1998.

To help with the costs of preparing the new location, NAPAC members held an adopt-a-window-program and an adopt-a-ceiling-fan-program.

With those complete, NAPAC is now embarking on an adopt-a-room program and looking for people or groups who want to participate.

The idea is to clean, restore and furnish rooms on the lowest level of the building for use as meeting space or, in some cases, to be leased to local businesses, Wheatley said.

NAPAC may also use the space for other programs such as art or dancing classes for young people, she added.

The museum received a $20,000 grant from the National Park Service to renovate one room on the main floor into the Pat Powers Conference Room, which is named in memory of a deceased board member.

NAPAC also received a grant from International Paper to fund audio visual equipment for the room.

And sometime soon, the board would like to open a gift shop at the site and eventually an art gallery and craft area.

Wheatley said she looks upon this one-year anniversary with a mixture of joy and sadness.

&uot;The joy is that it has been immediately successful,&uot; she said.

But for her the sadness comes from not being able to see all the board’s ideas happen right away.

But &uot;each day I come in, I see some of the progress that’s been made that I didn’t recognize (before),&uot;&160;Wheatley said.

And one step at a time things are going to happen, she said.