Los Alamos County Assistant Public Information Officer Leslie Bucklin holds up the Dorothy Woodward Award that was given to Project Oppenheimer by the Historical Society of New Mexico April 27. Courtesy photo

Scene from the awards banquet held April 27 by the Historical Society of New Mexico. Courtesy photo

By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com

All those posters, coffee mugs and internet memes celebrating the virtues of teamwork are in fact, correct. Collaboration can reap great results.

Take for instance Project Oppenheimer, which formed in conjunction to last year’s Oppenheimer film. Los Alamos County, the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation (LACDC), a multitude of organizations and many businesses joined forces to host activities, events and feature merchandise to celebrate the film and Los Alamos’ history. The core team members were dubbed Team Oppie.

The Historical Society of New Mexico acknowledged Project Oppenheimer and presented it with the Dorothy Woodward Award during a ceremony April 27.

In the announcement about the award, the Historical Society of New Mexico Awards Committee Chair Dennis Daily wrote the following:

“This award recognizes significant work in the advancement of education in New Mexico history. The awards committee was impressed with the way the Los Alamos community, and so many diverse organizations, were able to come together to promote the history of Los Alamos, the laboratory and the story that unfolded there … We applaud the foresight shown by tapping into the popularity and acclaim of the Oppenheimer movie and leveraging that interest for both education of New Mexico history and community economic development.”

Los Alamos County Assistant Public Information Officer Leslie Bucklin accepted the award.

She emphasized that the Historical Society of New Mexico award is for everyone.

“… It was really about facilitating solutions and getting people in the room and the people there were giving their best,” Bucklin said. “This is a community award.”

During the May 1 Historic Preservation Advisory Board meeting, Vice Chair Liz Martineau, who was a Team Oppie member, commended Bucklin and the rest of the team for its award.

“They did an amazing job,” Martineau said. “It was really a wonderful collaboration that occurred.”

She added that “just because the movie is over all this collaboration, for me, could be repurposed … hopefully we did it once, we can do it again.”

Bucklin said the idea for Project Oppenheimer was born during a meeting between herself and former Los Alamos County Marketing Specialist Kelly Stewart. The Oppenheimer film’s trailer had just dropped and it was evident that Los Alamos would be receiving a lot of attention.

Bucklin said they both decided that “we should try to create something to help the community be prepared.”

She explained she and Stewart wanted to help the community answer questions and, regardless of what the film portrayed, tell the true story about what happened in Los Alamos.

The first Project Oppenheimer meeting drew a lot of people and ideas were instantly brainstormed, Bucklin said.

“It created a space for entities like LANL, the National Parks Service, and non-profits like the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee and others to interact with the community, and I think getting everybody in the room, sharing ideas, increased interest and enthusiasm,” she said.

Businesses created Oppenheimer-themed merchandise, the Chamber offered them promotion, and a host website was developed to be a one-stop-shop for all things Oppenheimer-related – www.lacnm.com/oppie.

The success of all this is due to everyone contributing and supporting the effort, Bucklin said.

“We got everybody together … but the community needs to rise to the occasion to continue the effort,” Bucklin said.

The movie may have left theaters and the hype may have died down, but it doesn’t mean the effort to promote Los Alamos needs to stop, Bucklin said.

Like Martineau, she encourages the public to keep the momentum going.

“We got everybody together … but the community needs to rise to the occasion,” Bucklin said.