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Sharing
Your Stories
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Attendance at Senior Dining sites was dropping off in Iowa County. A central planning committee of Elder Services, Inc., Marengo Memorial Hospital, and Iowa State University Extension – Iowa County, met with the North English Senior Dining site coordinator to discuss new ideas. When a diner popped in to tell us a story, we started thinking about all the oral history we would lose when our elders are no longer with us. The Sharing Your Stories Web site came to mind, and we discussed having senior dining participants tell us stories about their childhood, growing up, etc. and then recording them on the Web site. We also looked for a way to incorporate the idea with the sesquicentennial celebration scheduled for the coming summer in North English. We decided to use some funds to purchase lunch for diners. We would either record the stories on tape, furnish paper for individuals to write their own stories, or have someone available to write down their stories for them. We set a target of about 25 people to participate in the program. Normal attendance at the North English Senior Dining Site had been under 10 per meeting. Sharing Your Stories brought in 71 people, with 62 over the age of 60. The sesquicentennial celebration chair was there with a video camera to record oral presentations along with my tape recorder. Seven people shared oral stories, nearly all humorous. Several people wrote stories and submitted them that day. In the weeks since the program, I received over 50 stories that have been typed up and are displayed in a notebook at the North English Senior Dining site. Another copy will be given to the Iowa County Historical Society for their museum. Most of the stories will be placed on the Sharing Your Stories Web site. Stories continue to come in weekly. The North English Senior Dining site had so much fun with this project that they voted to have a Stories day once a month and to have the site coordinator purchase a tape recorder to record oral stories. Senior Dining sites at Victor and Marengo also want us to help them plan a Sharing Your Stories program. Site coordinators are very pleased with the enthusiasm generated by people telling about their life experiences and the interest of participants in hearing about other people’s experiences. Sharing
Your Stories Marketing Materials
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