Monday, February 19, 2018
Last March, my sisters and I travelled to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC in order to personally donate some of my father’s papers from World War II. We had letters, drawings, photographs, discharge papers, a journal he wrote while deployed, and a personal narrative he wrote for one of his grandsons.
It was so cool to meet with the archivists there and to tell them about our father. They were very respectful of his belongings, cataloguing them carefully and preparing them for permanent storage.
I also found out that a representative from the Library would come to our hometown to teach people how to record veterans’ stories if we could get at least 25 people committed to attend. I was intrigued by that prospect.
I talked with the women in my Sunday School class about it. I talked to the folks at the Library. One thing lead to another and now we are less than two weeks away from our big event.
So...
Saturday, March 3 my Bible Study class is hosting a Library of Congress event at First Baptist Church from 9:30-5:00. It will be a full day but I think it will be really exciting.
In the morning we will learn about how the Library preserves papers and videos of veterans and active duty military. We’ll find out about how to gather information and how to prepare it for its new home in Washington.
In the afternoon the seminar participants who have just gone through the training will get to utilize their new skills right away. We have some local veterans and active duty personnel who will come to the church to have their stories recorded and submitted to the Library. That is going to be so cool!
I am so proud of our military. I think this is going to be a wonderful way to honor them — by permanently preserving their stories for all to see.
For more information:
Library of Congress Veterans History Project
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