If you could press a button and listen to your grandmother when she was ten years old, would you press that button? Every time I’ve posed that question, the response is a unanimous yes.
When we collect our stories, we realize how vital they are — especially now when so many are feeling isolated or unheard.
I’m the regional manager for StoryCorps Atlanta, one of the StoryCorps locations across the country where people go to record, preserve, and share their life stories. My job is to make sure the booth stays open to people who want to participate in sharing their stories, that the equipment is running well, and that it’s being used as much as possible.
I also do a lot of outreach. A number of people come to StoryCorps on their own, but many others come to us because we invite them through outreach to local, community-based organizations and cultural institutions. This is how we’re able to record the previously untold stories in our collection that make the biggest impact — such as stories of undocumented immigrants, homeless communities, and frontline workers fighting public health emergencies.
America is made of many different stories and experiences. Everyone has a story to tell, and a need to be heard. And having access to our stories — yours, mine, people we don’t know — gives us a chance to understand who we are and to listen to each other more fully. When you support StoryCorps today, you give us the power to ask people to share their stories.
Whatever you can give — $5, $10, $25 — makes this possible. Please, donate today.
Thank you,
Daniel Horowitz Garcia
StoryCorps Regional Manager