Officials with the Ozarks Heritage Research Center (OHRC) at Missouri State University-West Plains (MSU-WP) will host a presentation, “Seeing and Building Community Through Tradition” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, at OHRC, which is located inside MSU-WP’s Garnett Library, 304 W. Trish Knight St., in West Plains.

Free and open to all, this event is sponsored by the OHRC and West Plains Council on the Arts. Refreshments will be provided.

The presentation will be given by Kaitlyn McConnell. In this presentation, McConnell will share long-held examples of our regional culture that endure. As part of these observations, she will also share about the Ozarks Pie Project, an effort she began in 2024 to bake and share pies from vintage Ozarks cookbooks.

More about McConnell

Kaitlyn McConnell is the founder of Ozarks Alive, a cultural preservation project that documents people, places and history throughout the region. Since the project’s inception in 2015, she has published hundreds of articles reflecting the region’s present for its future as well as “The Ozarks Pie Project Diary,” a cookbook filled with recipes and stories from across the region.

For more information about the event, contact Rebekah McKinney at 417-255-7949 or RebekahMcKinney@MissouriState.edu. Visit WP.MissouriState.edu/Ozarks for additional information and upcoming events hosted by OHRC.