Learn All About Veterans Classroom Project

War II Illinois Veterans Memorial

Illinois Veteran's and Community Classroom Project

The Illinois Veterans Classroom Project is an intergenerational and instructional technology project created by the Illinois WWII Memorial Board and  the former Area 5 Learning Technology Center (LTC). Illinois WWII Memorial Board worked collaboratively with  the LTC and the Teaching with Primary Resources Projects at Quincy University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Illinois Central Management Services; Illinois State Board of Education; Illinois Learning Technology Centers; Illinois State Library; and the Thirteen Folds Project (P.J. Staab Family) to recruit, train and assist Illinois Schools statewide since 2008. Over the past years over 35 Illinois schools accepted the challenge to assist the Illinois WWII Veterans' Memorial Board in preserving an important piece of our heritage. These young citizens create digital stories of the service and sacrifice by men and women of the "Greatest Generation" who served our country and in more recent years other veterans from the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf War, and other conflicts. Through these efforts, the Illinois WWII Veterans Classroom Project was born. After 17+  years of work, nearly 1000 digital stories have been captured and saved for future generations, and over 500 veterans interviews have been submitted and accepted to the U.S. Library of Congress' Veterans History Project.

Two school still actively collect veterans’ service experience. These project  school will be seeking school districts and communities wishing to work collaboratively to digitally preserve locally historical resources such as books, journal series, manuscript collections, photographic images, slides, maps, prints, posters, audio, and video. Resources captured on this site will be free and publicly assessable online.  The two Illinois project schools still actively collecting interviews are Harlem 122 High School, Machesney Park, Harlem 122 Veterans History Project sponsored by Nick Stange; and O’Fallon High School, O’Fallon,  OTHS Veterans Project sponsored by Kristin Strubhart.

To view the stories collected by the project schools go to the Veterans Interview.

IVCCP Students and WWII Vets

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IVCCP students from Gillespie High School with WWII veterans Larry Edwards, Kathy Smith, and Denver Kunz.