Selma is full of historic treasures that we are lucky to have. These treasures — whether they are histories of people from Selma’s past or buildings that dot the landscape — are treasures that deserve to be valued and taken advantage of.

One local treasure in particular is the Old Depot Museum.

When tourists roll into town, many times they go straight to the Old Depot Museum on the corner of Water Avenue and Martin Luther King Street, looking for someone to give them information on what is here and where they can go. While we have a visitor’s center in town, many still seem to travel to the museum first. If this museum is our gate to tourism in Selma — our largest and most profitable industry — we have to keep that gate well kept and looking good.

Beth Spivey, the museum’s curator has big plans for the space — plans we could not be more thrilled to hear about. She’s working to restore the Old Depot to some of its former glory and better yet, she’s aiming to make people aware of all it has to offer.

To get things started she organized a low country boil fundraiser that was both fun and functional. More than 250 people — many of whom had never visited the Depot before — came out to support the museum Thursday night for the event raising more than $6,000.

Spivey said she plans to use those funds for new lights, windows and ceiling fans, as well as flat screen TVs that will continually show old pictures.

We applaud Spivey’s leadership and her continued efforts to enhance the space and make the Depot a place we can all be proud of.

We also applaud the success of the Depot’s first low country boil. Because of the great turn out and great atmosphere of the event, Spivey said she plans to host more fundraisers of its kind.

“I would love to have a live Cajun band and crawfish boil and maybe do a barbecue and a fish fry — I definitely want to do this again,” she said.

We look forward to watching the progress as the Old Depot Museum is restored and a new life is breathed into the historic treasure.