photo by United States Army Signal Corps
The Eighth Grade students of Ms. Lemmon's 1993-94 second period
English class dedicate this book to all the heroes in World War II,
both those who went and those who stayed home, working and
waiting.
|
Travis Balderston |
Cinnamon M. Evans |
Corey Lucero |
Changed Forever is a book about feelings. All the men and women we talked with were affected in some way by World War II. In this book you can read our perspectives on WWII and the people who lived through it. Most of the kids in our class said that the people were heroes. Others said they were men that were brave.
Our eighth grade language arts class put in a lot of work interviewing people, reading books, and movies. After their hard work, we finally put together our findings in this book.
This project has been a good experience for all of us, because we didn't have to just read out of a textbook, that can sometimes be boring. With real people you get something you don't get in a text-feelings and emotions.
In this book, we hope you learn and maybe experience some of the feelings we experienced. We hope that you remember this book and respect the heroes and heroines of World War II, like we do now. We should respect the people that have given their souls and time to fight for their country, and we should always remember them, not as old people, but as heroes and heroines.
The book you are reading sprang from a community based education project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Our students often had trouble relating to history. They also did not know the members of their community very well. It was through these two concerns that we came to write Changed Forever.
We sent out letter to retirement communities and veterans groups in Albuquerque asking to speak with people who had been alive during WWII. These community members were great about giving their time to the students. Most community members came in and spoke to the entire class and then were later interviewed by a team of two or three students. In order to insure that they had plenty of background information before the interview, students read novels, watched WWII movies, and did research.
The Information they gathered from our volunteers was recorded and compiled, then written into the articles you are about to read. The volunteers helped further by being available to help edit the articles for accuracy. No part of this project would have been possible without the constant willingness of this older generation to make history come alive for their younger counterparts.
Another vital piece of this project was the help we received from our parent community. Kathy Duvall, our community liaison, coordinated every part and made sure we were where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there. She was completely responsible for acquiring and scheduling speakers. Becky Weaver helped immensely with fund raising, transportation, and suggestions of help.
I believe that although the title, Changed Forever, reflects the feelings of those who lived through the 1940s, the people who truly changed forever because of this project are the students. They tackled tough information and were successful with it. They did meaningful research for an authentic audience and experienced the real-world problems of deadlines and responsibility. Most importantly, my students learned that the older people in the community are a piece of history who have something of value to share. No one who worked on this book will ever again look at a senior citizen with the same eyes. In the words of many of my students, "these people are all heroes."
Thank you,
Cathy Lemmon, Book Project Coordinator
1. Men In The Military
2. A Soldier's Conversion
3. Experiences To Remember Forever
4. War Under Water
5. Old Barns
6. Harry Auld
7. Navajo Code Talkers
8. Bataan
9. A Soldier Survives
10. A Little Girl's Point of View
11. The Ways of Women in World War
II
12. Women Become Official Members of the
Army
13. Working on the Manhattan Project
14. Working For the Red Cross
15. The Homefront
16. Wilbur Weaver
17. Staying Home
18. Service First, Yourself Second
19. The Holocaust
20. Marisa Bertoletti
This book would have been impossible without the help of the Albuquerque community. Many people gave of their time as speakers and volunteered to be interviewed. Their knowledge and patience was much appreciated. Thank you to Harry Auld, Jack Ben Ezra, Marisa Bertoletti, Esther Branson, Arlene Brubach, Todd Cornell, Jonathan Dailey of Creative Designs, Inc., Margaret Diers, Anna Mae Eichelberger, Harry Gerenstein, Colonel and Mrs. Irvin, Claude and Nancy Lewis, Warren Link, Ralph Piatek, Virginia Rodriguez, General Carmelita Schimmenti, Toni Seidler, Agapito "Gap" Silva, Wilbur Weaver, George Wilson, and Heather Wilson.
Many members of the community saw the worth of a project such as
this and supported it with much needed donations. Thank you to:
Kennedy Middle School PFTO
Kennedy Middle School
Rockefeller Foundation Community Based Education Project
Southwest Building Contractors
VFW Post 49
VFW Post 118
Lois MacMenigall
Amadeo's Pizza and Subs
Lukens Realty
Mascarenas Enterprises
Callender Insurance
Members of the Edelweiss German American Club
Edelweiss Bowling League
Employees of Custom Craft Fixtures
Tom Meadows
Thank you also to Ramada Inn East for providing us with space to edit and collaborate as we neared our deadline.
We would like to especially thank the Kennedy Rockefeller Team, Jim Brooks, Jane Brennan, Diana Freshman, Lynne Harper, Nikki Kutulas, and Ronnie Roberts, who provided ongoing support and encouragement for our editor and teacher, Ms. Catherine Lemmon.
Most importantly, we would like to thank Kathy Duvall, our community liaison. She solved all problems-large and small. Without Kathy there would have been no book. She coordinated our interviews, made sure our equipment worked,located all of our speakers, and even helped edit our writing. Kathy Duvall gave us her time, her energy and enthusiasm, her organization skills, and her problem solving abilities.
Muchas Gracias!