Two hundred years ago, depictions of Limestone County consisted primarily of deeds, written remembrances and portraits of wealthy landowners.

Modern technology is enabling members of the Athens Mayor’s Youth Commission to capture the Limestone County of today through a series of videos posted to social media outlets like YouTube and Facebook.

The videos have three focus areas — food, music and a scavenger hunt-themed video depicting interesting sites around Athens. A fourth video, which “premiered” last week, is a montage of local scenery combined with residents wishing the city a “Happy Birthday.”

The video was shared on the state’s bicentennial Facebook page with the message, “This video should make anyone want to visit. We’re looking forward to seeing more of your city.”

About the project

Commission mentor Holly Hollman explained the students were divided into smaller groups who worked with mentors from the city and community. They challenged the groups to create videos to promote the city’s bicentennial efforts.

Athens turns 200 in November 2018, and the city has also joined Alabama on a three-year celebration from 2017 to 2019.

“The idea with this project was to encourage our Youth Commissioners to explore Athens and find something about our city that interests them and to share that interest with others to help us celebrate this milestone and market Athens,” Hollman said.

The food video, which will be released later this year, highlights new and old eateries. The music video includes messages from Alabama Shakes lead singer Brittany Howard, studio drummer Milton Sledge and singer and songwriter Lillian Glanton.

For the scavenger hunt video, students went to sites in Athens and shared a few tidbits of the site’s history.

“The students then ask the viewers if they can go out and find these sites,” Hollman said.

As each video is released on YouTube, the individual links will be shared on the city’s Facebook and Twitter pages and included on the city’s website here.