SALISBURY — Salisbury has always been home to Weston Ewart, and he is doing what he knows and loves to keep his hometown special through his work with the Salisbury Historic Foundation.

As of the first week of January, Ewart celebrated his first year anniversary as the event coordinator with the private, nonprofit organization, which, as noted on their website, has a mission of preserving, protecting and revitalizing the historic fabric of Salisbury and Rowan County.

“I already love architecture and homes and design,” Ewart said when asked about what drew him to work with the foundation. And, he shared, this position “allows me to do one of the other things I love to do, which is planning parties and events and fundraisers for a good cause.”

A native of Salisbury, an area that Ewart said he “liked too much to leave just yet,” also noted that his family is local to the city and to Faith.

Prior to beginning his time with the foundation, he shared that he has done event coordinating with various organizations as well as privately and has done digital merchandising and decorating.

Ewart noted that he enjoys helping plan private parties for people, whether it be for holidays or birthdays, but that his job “allows me to do it to know that the money we raise and the things we do are keeping these houses around our town.”

As an event coordinator, Ewart said the biggest event he plans and coordinates is the OctoberTour, their historic tour, that as the name suggests is held every October.

His responsibilities include getting the houses for the tour, making sure the homeowners “feel OK to be on the tour” and then creating chair positions to handle the various aspects of it all.

Noting that they try to have around 10 to 12 homes as a part of the tour each year, Ewart shared the homes must meet certain criteria to be included such as be “at least a certain age or have some sort of historic value or something special about them.”

This year’s tour, he added, will be different as they plan to be “mostly, if not all in the Hurley Park area,” something they haven’t done before. Normally, he noted, they are in Salisbury’s West Square District.

Another event that they have gotten underway, one geared for children, is the Hall House Hop, an Easter event, set for March 30 this year and one that will be held annually.

This was “created because a lot of the time, the events we created are more geared toward adults and we didn’t do anything for the kids in the area,” Ewart said. Therefore, the Hall House Hop will allow children to come to the Hall House lawn where they can enjoy an Easter event.

“It’s a pretty fun one to put together.”

An additional event that Ewart mentioned he enjoys working on are the Patrons’ Parties, which serve as a kickoff for the OctoberTours.

This year will be the foundation’s 50th anniversary and he expressed how very much he is looking forward to planning this anniversary event.

Another part of his job that he likes are the people he works with, he said. “Staff really makes me enjoy my job.”

With the money that is raised from the various events that the foundation holds, they can “restore and protect historic homes so that they don’t get torn down for new homes so that we can kind of keep the historic charm of Salisbury,” Ewart said.

There are more than 200 properties in their revolving fund at the moment, he added. So they raise money to both keep the office going and to select houses or a project to work on, and “we just try to do as much as we can each year.”

It is the responsibility of the board and staff to find those locations to be added for preservation and restoration, to which he noted there are several being looked into.

When asked what part of the job he found most gratifying, Ewart concluded by saying, “I feel like this is my town and I know these people and I kind of feel like people in this town got me this position, my neighbors, my friends. So it feels good to be wanted to be in this position and just getting to do what you like to do for your town.”

As noted on their website, the Salisbury Historic Foundation, which is located at 215 Depot Street, is a 501(c)(3), and all donations qualify for maximum tax deductions. Those wishing to learn about ways to donate or see a listing of their events, can visit their website or Facebook page or give them call them.