Ukiah Daily Journal - Public invited to Veterans History Project reception
The public is invited to join veterans and students who participated in Mendocino County's first Veteran's History Project to a reception at 4 p.m. on Monday, May 16 at the Veterans Memorial Building in Ukiah. Congressman Mike Thompson, who spearheaded the VHP in Mendocino County, will talk about why recording the stories of our war veterans is so important.
Clips of the videos and excerpts from the audio recordings done by 35 students from Mendocino College, Anderson Valley High School and Laytonville High School will showcase a selection of recorded stories by 27 local veterans.
The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center was created by the U.S. Congress in 2000 to collect, preserve and make accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
To date, the program comprises more than 68,000 individual collections, which include audio- and video-recorded interviews, original photographs, letters and other historical documents from veterans of every war and conflict since World War I. Eight audio and 19 video recordings will be sent from Mendocino County to be included in the Library of Congress VHP collection.
The reception will include a short program, refreshments and an introduction of the participating veterans, veteran coaches and students as well as a showing of the clips. Mendocino County's Veterans History Project was made possible through the sponsorships of the Mendocino College Foundation and Mendo-Lake Credit Union.
A steering committee composed of veterans, educators and Congressman Thompson's district office staff coordinated the successful project. They include Carl Stenberg and Alice Watkins, Mendocino County Veterans Services; Bob Parker, Commander, Ukiah Veterans of Foreign War; Katie Wojcieszak, Mendocino College Foundation; Mitch Mendosa, Anderson Valley Schools; Jonathan Dooley, technical coordinator; Heidi Dickerson, staff, Congressman Mike Thompson. In Laytonville Richard Kale, English instructor at Laytonville High School and Lindsay O'Neill, volunteer from Healthy Start, steered the production of 19 veteran interviews by 30 students from three classes.
For more information on the reception and to confirm attendance anyone interested in coming may call 468-3164 or email kwojo@mendocino.edu.
For more information on the Veterans History Project contact Congressman Thompson's office at 962-0933.