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L
to R: Steven Staley, Chair of the Grant-Making Committee
and Karen Wendeln, Executive
Director of The Piqua Community Foundation
met with CEO Mitch Fogle and Board President
Tristan Weis of the Miami
Valley Veterans Museum at the Veterans Lounge located on
Edison State’s
Piqua campus.
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Edison State Community College
Veterans
Recount WWII Stories
Videos of men and women from the Miami Valley telling stories of their
military experience will soon be available locally to the public.
Included in the DVD collection are such historic World War II events as
the Battle of the Bulge and the Beaches of Normandy invasion, as well
as, prison camp accounts of what American soldiers witnessed at Stalag
VII-A and Dachau.
Accounts of those who served after World War II are in the collection,
which features medics, a surgeon, infantry, and those in all branches
of service, engaged in the diverse roles essential to support armed
conflicts.
In funding this initiative, Steve Staley, Grant-Making Committee
Chairman, and Karen Wendeln, Executive Director of the Piqua Community
Foundation, indicate, “Our Foundation feels strongly the importance of
preserving the stories of our local veterans in their own words for
future generations. The project provided the unique opportunity to
capture their stories, to involve our local college students, and to
create permanent recordings for use by those in our community and
throughout the country.”
Volunteer coordinator and Edison State faculty member Dr. Vivian
Blevins became involved in organizing the video interview project with
students after attending a workshop on the Library of Congress Veterans
History Project.
Students in Blevins’ American literature and communication classes had
the opportunity to receive honors credit for interviewing three
veterans and earning a grade of A or B for their work.
Blevins went on to explain, “I taught students the process: learn about
the historical period of the veteran; get vital information on the
veteran; learn to introduce him/her, follow the questions which I
provided, and conduct the interview. Then they wrote papers in which
they detailed the interviews and the impact it had on them.”
A student who was active in the project wrote, “I am glad I was able to
participate in this project, but writing this paper was extremely
difficult and emotionally draining. Usually when I talk about my family
and my son’s father and the military, I am surrounded by people just
like me and we can cry and laugh about crying together. I wrote this
paper at home, alone with my cat, talking to you, the reader, through
words and pictures on a computer screen. It was very lonely and
desolate. I don’t want you to feel sorry for me - none of us do. I just
hope that when you see bumper stickers, t-shirts, and other reminders
that “freedom isn’t free,” you will realize that not only do our
military men and women pay the price, but their families pay a price,
too.”
The second part of the collection includes DVDs entitled “Veterans’
Voices” that Blevins produced which aired on Western Ohio Television
Consortium (WOTVC) Channel 5. Volunteers Vietnam Air Force veteran Nick
Essinger filmed this series and Vietnam Era Coast Guard veteran Ted
Jones served as editor. The Piqua Community Foundation provided the
funds for duplicating the DVDs and completing the extensive
documentation and clerical tasks.
The DVDs will soon be available at the Miami Valley Veterans Museum in
Troy for viewing, and a special set is available to be checked out and
may be duplicated. Area teachers are encouraged to consider using these
historic accounts in their classrooms.
For more information, contact Blevins by emailing
vblevins@edisonohio.edu or calling 937-778-3815.
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