The first paid executive director of the Friends of the Vicksburg National Military Park bears a name familiar in local tourism and culture circles.

Bess Averett, former director of the Southern Cultural Heritage Center, began Monday in the 20-hour-a-week position, Mike Madell, superintendent of the VNMP, announced last week.

The nonprofit Friends organization was started about five years ago and has been volunteer-run in support of the park’s mission to preserve the history, battlefields and artifacts of the battles and Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War.

“I’m really impressed with the organization and what has been accomplished just by volunteers,” Averett said Wednesday. “I’ve been researching other Friends organizations and seeing the different programs they take on, and there is so much potential here.”

Averett most recently spearheaded February’s Carnaval de Mardi Gras and gumbo cook-off at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center as a volunteer, but she was on staff there from 2003 to 2007 before signing on as public relations manager at Ameristar Casino, a post she held until 2011.

“The entire board is so excited about Bess coming on board,” said J. Mack Varner, president of the board of directors of the Friends of the VNMP. “She has all the tools and the experience to be an outstanding executive director. I think this will give the Friends group so much more presence in the city, and she is going to be able to promote the park. We’re just thrilled.”

Current plans are for Averett to occupy an office at the park’s Pemberton Headquarters site on Crawford Street, probably by August, she said.

Her first goal is to build up the Friends of VNMP organization, which currently has about 50 members. The VNMP is preparing to observe the 150th anniversary of the battles and siege as Union Gen. U.S. Grant waged a campaign to capture the city.

“With the sesquicentennial coming up, there is a great need and a lot of potential for community interest and volunteer participation,” she said. “It’s a great chance to grow the Friends organization and volunteer base to help the park.”

Madell said Houston businessman John Nau, a member of the Friends board of directors, the Civil War Trust and the National Park Foundation, provided the “seed money” to expand the directorship to a paid position, pledging $25,000 a year for the first two years until it can become self-supporting.

“It has the potential to take the Friends group to the next level,” said Madell. “Harry McMillin has done the job as executive director as a volunteer, and he’s done a great job. Allowing a focus on it as an actual job should help the group as an organization.”

Nau previously donated $300,000 to restore the Shirley House, the sole remaining structure in the VNMP from the 1863 campaign, as well as funds to clear and restore about 90 acres of the battlefield near the Texas monument and Railroad Redoubt in 2005 and 2006.

“He’s great, absolutely,” Madell said of Nau. “He’s totally sincere about everything. Vicksburg and the park mean a great deal to him.”

CORRECTION

John Nau donated $300,000 for the Vicksburg National Military Park battlefield restoration project. Restoration of the Shirley House was funded through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.