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Thursday, 19 November 2009 |
By KATIE YANTIS
Staff Writer
MINSTER — Students in Minster are gearing up to conduct the second round of a history project started last year.
Freshman history students completed an oral history project last year to contribute to a World War II display at the Minster Historical Society.
"Minster Historical Society approached us about doing this, they wanted to get the kids involved," history teacher Nathan Helmstetter said. "The next war was the Korean War so they chose to do that."
Helmstetter said Mary Oldiges, of the historical society, said the project was a success last year.
"The response of the community was great from what I understand, they ended up having the display open a lot longer than they anticipated," Helmstetter said. "They did a really nice job. They incorporated a lot of artifacts into the display. The kids interviewing some of the veterans had a video that told the experiences of being on the war front. It was really neat to see and hopefully we will be able to do the same thing with the Korean War."
He said the students in the history class will conduct interviews with Korean War veterans for two weeks at the high school. The students will conduct the interviews with the veterans, edit the tapes and prepare them to go in the display at the historical society.
Helmstetter said he hopes all veterans of the war will come forward with their personal story.
"I hope they all want to come out, this is not only a way for the students to learn but it is also a way to pass their legacy on and also gain a new understanding of what they did during that war," Helmstetter said.
Helmstetter said the exact number of veterans in the area is unknown but said he has a list of about 40 to 45 that are living and deceased.
He said the project will help the students learn the history of the Korean War and the history of those living around them.
"It helps them a lot because you hear about the war in text books and you hear about what happened but you don't connect people in your own community being a part of that," Helmstetter said. "It has got them excited about learning about the Korean War."
He also said the project will offer additional benefits to the students.
"Hopefully they gain a new respect of the people of the older generation, grandparents and other people that did serve in conflicts like these," Helmstetter said. "Hopefully that will carry over to other conflicts such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam — hopefully we will be doing a project on that as well."
The display will start sometime in early March. Any veterans who are willing to share their story can call the high school at 419-628-2324 to schedule an appointment. The deadline is Friday.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 December 2009 )
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