STAUNTON -- Members of the Historic Staunton Foundation are celebrating this week. They honored nine different projects throughout the city that they say are the best when it comes to preservation.

The awards went to historic locales in the Queen City dedicated to being unique.

The Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind won for its institutional heritage.

The recently re-installed Sears Hill Bridge won for its ability to get grassroots support.

A number of owners of some of Staunton's historic homes got awards for their ability to rehabilitate the space and keep it fresh and usable.

“What's important for Staunton about that, is that we're seeing an adaptive use of building downtown. It brings more people downtown. If people are living downtown, and playing and using downtown all the time, it creates a vibrant downtown,” said Frank Strassler, the executive director of the Historic Staunton Foundation.

The foundation will discuss all of the winning projects at their monthly brown bag meeting at 12 p.m. Friday.