Date: 7/29/2022
PALMER – The Palmer Cultural Council is co-sponsoring with the Palmer Public Library a project called “Palmer Villages, Palmer Voices.” Along with M-PACT TV, Palmer Historical & Cultural Center, Palmer Historical Commission, Elbow Plantation Historical Society and Mass Cultural Council, the project will highlight and record accounts of the history of the town by Palmer residents.
Chairperson of the Palmer Cultural Council Beth Zelazo explained, “We have our own path and our own history. It just made me realize that there’s a lot of strength in our community when we know where we have come from, how it got here, how it was vibrant at one point in time and how things change very quickly if we’re not in tune with the things that we drive and walk by every day.”
She continued, “Our memories are treasure troves of experiences, that if not tapped into and recorded or documented through any media, will be lost. Future generations will never know the sacrifices, dreams, losses, triumphs of perseverance, resilience, pride and hard work that goes into the making of a community.”
Through the collaboration, the organizations are seeking people from each village and every generation who will share their Palmer stories about business, school, events, food, restaurants, entertainment, health, natural disasters, sports, transportation and much more.
Amy Golenski, adult services librarian at Palmer Public Library, said, “The goal of this project is to collect digital items and stories of life and experiences in the villages of Palmer from each generation. We’re hoping to record many accounts and gather lots of supporting scanned historical material to preserve for our current community, and for generations to come.”
These stories will be recorded through an interview process. Participants will receive a copy of their edited recording on DVD. Recordings will be preserved and shared by the Palmer Public Library as well as broadcast on M-PACT. To enhance the recordings, they are asking people from the community to find special Palmer photos, post cards, memorabilia and other items from the past to be preserved at the library in a digital collection. The library will not keep physical treasures, but will scan or photograph memorabilia to create this digital collection.
Collection Development Librarian Helene O’Connor explained, “We started with plans for a public scanning a day before the [coronavirus] pandemic. At this event, we would scan historical items and add them to the library’s digital collection in order to share them with the public.”
She continued, “This is a chance to preserve the items that help tell Palmer’s stories. Then we thought, ‘why just scan the items, why not invite the people who own the items to share the stories about them as well?’”
Golenski and O’Connor told Reminder Publishing initially they planned the project in connection to a scanning day. Then they found that the Palmer Historical & Cultural Center was working on a similar oral history project.
Through the Cultural Council, they joined forces with all the historical agencies to be included. Golenski said M-PACT TV had been a part of their thoughts because of the coronavirus pandemic and trying to offer library services remotely to reach people in a different way.
“M-PACT TV has been open to giving their time to support this project,” Golenski added. “We’re going to be doing pre-interviews at the library. Then we’ll schedule a time at M-PACT TV studio where Ryan Shepherd, the IT/Multimedia technician at M-PACT is going to do the filming. In addition, he will be editing the recordings for broadcast.”
Though they are filming at M-PACT one-on-one with an interviewer and an interviewee, Golenski and O’Connor are flexible. They will brainstorm with participants on how to best serve their needs. Townspeople can submit their own video, and Golenski and O’Connor will work with those who want to do an intergenerational recording.
The two expect the project to be ongoing. The first phase of the project – 25 interviews – funded from the Palmer Cultural Council, will be completed by the end of 2022.
“The stories are told and kept for the community,” O’Connor responded. “Through this project and also in my library research, I learn something new and interesting about Palmer almost every day.”
She continued, “As I’m working with these individuals so far the stories are really fantastic. If it has to do with Palmer memories and experiences, we’d love to share them with everyone. We think of it as a great example of the range of experiences in town over the years.”
The project is supported in part by a grant from the Palmer Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Those who are interested in participating can submit a form on the library’s website at https://www.palmerlibrary.org/palmervoices/ or call O’Connor or Golenski at 283-3330 ext.109 for more details.