Leelanau Remembers – Oral History Presentation (Tonight, October 14)

Students from Leland Public School will offer an encore presentation of their oral history project, LEELANAU REMEMBERS, on Wednesday, October 14th from 7:00pm – 8:00pm at the Leland Performing Arts Center – Leland Public School. This presentation is free to the public.

This oral history project was recently awarded the 2009 Michigan State History Prize for Educational Programs.

Read more about the Leelanau Remembers project and their award in this article from the Record Eagle:

The project, which spanned the 2008-09 school year, paired fourth-grade students and tenth-grade English students to collect, record and archive the personal testimony of older Leland area residents.

“We wanted to do something with biographies,” said English teacher Jeanne Gross, who partnered with third- and fourth-grade teacher Kim Klein and the Leelanau Historical Museum to produce a 45-minute DVD that will join the museum’s collection of oral histories.

The project won a 2009 Historical Society of Michigan State History Award — the highest recognition presented by the state’s official historical society. It was one of 13 projects in different categories that received awards at the society’s 135th annual meeting and conference Oct. 2-4 on Mackinac Island.

The Leland students videotaped interviews with 10 local residents and edited nearly 11 hours of tape with the help of videographers Glen Petersen of Petersen Productions and Thom and Nancy Harris of Your Life Video. The students also composed the interview questions, conducted the interviews, transcribed the tapes and wrote biographical sketches of each candidate.

Be sure to check out the Leelanau Remembers event on facebook.