Leadership Chattanooga has partnered with Battle Academy to provide 60 fourth graders an interactive historic walking tour of the Downtown Waterfront and a chance to explore the Creative Discovery Museum on Tuesday.

As part of Leadership Chattanooga’s 10-month development program, team members created, planned and will facilitate this event. The projects team members include 8 leaders from 1st Tennessee, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Unum, AT&T, Mindflow Media Inc., Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Chattanooga Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency and BenchMark Physical Therapy.

“I’m excited to be a part of this project,” says Tahnika Rodriguez, senior manager of TVA enterprise systems projects and a team member. “It’s fun to be with younger kids and explore with them the history surrounding the Chattanooga area.” TVA is sponsoring the day’s events, which includes lunch for all the children and project coordinators.

The fourth graders will be split into two groups. While one group takes the interactive historic walking tour of the Waterfront, the other will visit the Creative Discovery Museum. Half way through the day the students will switch so that each group will have a chance to experience both unique tours.

Officials said, "This tour is not any average tour of the Waterfront. The students will have a fill in the blank document that they must complete during the tour. The interactive materials were created to engage the children while touring the historical sites, and will be used for future tours by other groups of school children."

Maury Nicely, author of “Chattanooga Walking Tour and Historic Guide will take the children on what he calls, “an exciting adventure” as he explains each stop along the Waterfront. “As a young boy growing up in Chattanooga, I couldn’t help but to become immersed in its history. Chattanooga is unlike so many other places where, as a child, you just read about battle fields, wars fought or the Cherokee nation. Here, in Chattanooga, you grow up surrounded by these places.”

The stops that the students will make along the Waterfront tour include the Hunter Museum of American Art, Ross’s Landing, Walnut Street Bridge and the Bluff Furnace. By visiting the sites the students will explore and learn about Chattanooga’s history as it relates to Native Americans, African Americans, urban renewal projects and art.

“We are very excited to be a part of this walking tour and to describe to the students how we came to be,” said Katrina Craven, public relations and marketing director at the Hunter Museum of American Art.

“This hands-on field study will help the three classes of fourth graders see first hand what they can’t see within the four school walls,” says Patty Streip, family partnership specialist at Battle Academy. “Spending the day learning with leaders from the greater community will broaden the student’s horizons. Leadership Chattanooga’s hearts are in the right place.”

“The goal of our project is to educate and enlighten children about Chattanooga’s rich history,” said Troy Bage, president of BenchMark Physical Therapy and a Leadership Chattanooga team member.