Forty-Six Years of Preserving Our Story: Will You Help Write the Next Chapter?

On September 16, 1981, a small group of visionaries gathered for Sandy Spring Museum's first General Members Meeting, turning a young organization, founded less than one year earlier, into a living promise to preserve our region's stories, traditions, and history.

Forty-five years later, we invite you to celebrate that legacy with us during our Second Annual Founders' Day, Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

So much has grown from that first meeting. Today, the Museum safeguards more than 100,000 digitized historical records and serves as Montgomery County's Regional Folklife Center. Over the last year, our story grew again: Sandy Spring Bank/Atlantic Union Bank generously donated its historic bank building to the Museum, a landmark gift that will allow us to expand how we preserve and share this community's history for generations to come. And inside our galleries, visitors can still marvel at Dr. Jacob Bird's carriage, a beautifully preserved piece of Sandy Spring life that connects us directly to the people who first called this place home.

But our work is far from finished. There are collections still waiting to be shared, traditions still waiting to be documented, and neighbors whose stories haven't yet been told.

That's where you come in.

Founders' Day is a chance to honor our past, celebrate our present, and invest in our future, and this year, we're asking you to bring someone with you to the Museum family. Invite a friend, a neighbor, or a family member to join you in making a gift. Whether you're a longtime member, a first-time donor, a Strawberry Festival regular, or a History Happy Hour guest, you are part of this story, and so is everyone you bring along.

Throughout the day, we'll be sharing interviews, highlights, and other special videos, along with heartfelt thanks to the supporters who make it all possible.

Will you join us, and bring someone with you?

Sandy Spring Museum - Founders' Day of Giving

Team Leaderboard

Team Members