Good morning. I have some disturbing news concerning the WWII Oral History Project that I need to share with the list. Dr. Smith of Northwestern State University informed us this week that the La. Endowment for the Arts has denied the grant proposal of the Winn Parish Museum for the WWII Oral History Project. I have emailed Dr. Smith with some questions/suggestions but have not yet heard back from her. This disturbs me because I cannot think of a more worthwhile project and I suppose selfishness creeps into my imagination and I wonder why whoever the powers that be decided not to fund the grant. From all appearances early on, we thought the grant application approval was a snap and would not fall by the wayside, but it has. I suppose someone bigger than us needed to refurbish an outhouse in Vermillion Parish, which might be equally important to them, but being the selfish individual I am, I find our project as important as any other I know of. At any rate... So, here are my views. Regardless of a grant or no grant, we have done some great work that can't or won't be undone. Our organization was not going to realize any monetary gain from the grant at any point. The funds would have gone to the museum or to the university, not to WPGHA. Our motives were never profit driven. Expensewise, we have about six or eight volunteers who have freely sacrificed a couple of Saturdays to peform the interviews. We purchased a couple of recorders, a sack full of tapes, and are only out at this point a couple of hundred bucks. I don't think you can place a monetary figure on the value of what we've accomplished thus far. Besides, what is our organization all about to begin with? History and genealogy. And, genealogy is history. So we're doing something that needs to be done and is being done. Grant or no grant, we still have over 60 interviews of Winn Parish heroes whose stories have never, ever been recorded and again, these will be worth more than money to our kids, grandkids, and so on down the line. I propose that we continue with what we're doing and my proposal seems to be unanimous among the volunteers who have worked so hard on the project. Again, expenses will be limited to the cost of tapes unless we decide to have them transcribed. I have written Dr. Smith to see if NSU would still be willing to transcribe the tapes, but have yet to hear from her. If they are, I think I speak for everyone on the committee in saying we would continue on as planned and allow NSU copies of the work. If they are not, and we have to hire a transcriptionist, we might be looking at some pretty serious money for an organization of our size and monetary means. I think there are some who might be willing to donate to the cause should we run into the expense of having to pay for transcription. However, should we put the material in book form and sell it, we might make a few bucks for the organization. Regardless, we are doing something that needs to be done and something that is noble and that will benefit generations from now on. Each time I think about this project I wish that someone would have recorded a statement from every veteran of this country who ever fought in any war. Imagine how many questions you would be able to answer about your ancestors if you had such access. So, to sum it up, the committee thus far has agreed to continue on with the project and the silver lining in the dark cloud is that we are no longer fighting a deadline of October and we don't have to be in a hurry. I appreciate any views or comments as long as they are in agreement with mine. Gregg