Elgin-area veterans to share their experiences via video this year

Since 2017, Elgin-area veterans have been sharing their stories of service with local school kids on Veterans Day.

And they're not going to let a pandemic stop them from doing that again this year.

The program, called Veterans Voices, was started by the Gail Borden Public Library and Elgin School District U-46 after it was decided students in Illinois would spend Veterans Day in school instead of it being an out-of-school holiday.

"Children really needed something meaningful and educational to do to observe Veterans Day," said Tish Calhamer, Gail Borden's program coordinator.

She said local historian Jerry Turnquist brought them the idea of having some of the 3,000 or so area veterans visit school classrooms and share stories with the students.

"They were intended to be just informal conversations where kids could ask questions, teachers could prepare their class plan around the visit, and it wouldn't be a stiff formal presentation that might intimidate both the veteran and the student," Calhamer said. "It's a little bit more up close and personal than an assembly."

Veterans would share why they joined the military, stories about basic training and overseas assignments and friendships made during their service, she said.

With that being impractical to do in person this year, organizers shifted to an online version of the program where people can log in to gailborden.info/veterans and see seven presentations by local veterans. Each video is about 10 minutes. There is also a Zoom-recorded panel discussion with several veterans.

Calhamer said a couple of veterans recorded their videos at home, but most came to the library to be recorded by staff.

"They would just stand behind the podium and tell their story, and they were thoughtful and candid," Calhamer said. "But really what came through was that they served then, and they are still serving now, they're still wanting to give back to the community."

The program will be online starting at 1 p.m. on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11.