Heritage Seekers

In 2011, my home county will celebrate it's Bicentennial.  To help celebrate this event I have reorganized the Heritage Seekers whose primary goals are to;1.  Preserve the oral histories of Madison County, GA by interviewing senior citizens and making the video and audio tapings of the interviews available for check-out at the local libray2.  Have each youth interviewer write up at least one article from each of his or her interviews and have these write-ups published in the local newspaer3.  Use the write-ups from the interviews along with photos of historical mementos and the people being interviewed and have these published in a book to be entitiled Past Tense II in time for our Bicentennial celebration4.  Prepare and present a film documentary using letters from Madison County soldiers written during the Civil WarI have already recruited and trained 12 members for the organization.  I, along with other Senior 4-H'ers in my county, led an all-day training that included how to prepare for and conduct effective interview, how to work respectively and effectively with senior citizens, and how to write news articles.  Already we are making an impact on our community.  I am seeing strong bonds develop between our interviewers, whose ages range from 10 to 16, and the senior citizens they are interviewing.  The group has worked on their wiiting skills and have become more proficient.  Our awarenes of technology has increased.  We are learning how to plan, budget, and how to write strong grants.  I have learned how to delegate and become more aware of how important it is that we work as a team to accomplish our goals.