Volunteers in Canada, the U.S., Australia, the U.K. and Switzerland will record elders' and veterans' memories during Personal History Awareness Month.
More than 200 volunteers will hold workshops and interview people in nursing homes, hospices, veterans' centres and other facilities and videotape or write stories about the subjects' lives throughout May as part of the Association of Personal Historians' Saving Lives program. The 265 members of the nine-year-old Association of Personal Historians (APH) are professionals who help individuals, families, communities, groups and businesses capture their histories as a lasting legacy. APH members do this either by audiotaping or videotaping client life stories, printing them in books or teaching people how to write their own life stories or those of their relatives.
Carol Upton, a local personal historian, will facilitate two half-day workshops called Capturing Memories: Getting Started. These Sunshine Coast Regional District workshops will be held at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre in Sechelt from 1 to 4 p.m. beginning on Saturday, May 29, and winding up on June 5. Come prepared to recall and begin writing your life stories or those of someone you care about. Tips for creative editing, graphic design and binding of your final product will also be discussed. "I take the work out of recalling and writing your family memory book," Upton says. "Your life stories are unique and deserve to be recreated and preserved as a legacy. My mother developed Alzheimer's at an early age and, when she could no longer tell her stories, I went on a quest to interview other family members."
Millions of us keep meaning to find the time to interview our parents or grandparents and capture their life stories for children and grandchildren, but in most cases we never get around to it. "Don't wait until it is too late," says Upton.
Take the first steps toward preserving your life story today! Pre-register for Capturing Memories through the SCRD at 604-885-6801. For more details, contact Carol Upton at 604-886-8951, email [email protected] or visit the APH website: www.personalhistorians.org.
