By SOPHIE HOOVER/Murphy News Service

A group of volunteers met last week in Inver Grove Heights to learn about how they can help preserve the experiences of United States veterans forever.

The Veterans History Project (VHP) of the Library of Congress (LOC) was created in 2000 to preserve the stories and experiences of the United States’ veterans from any war era. The volunteer-supported program accepts video or audio interviews, diaries, letters, art, and pictures from during the vet’s enlistment.

Through the office of Senator Al Franken, the VHP has now officially come to Minnesota and is already training volunteers. The four-hour session began at Inver Hills Community College on Oct. 5 and attracted more than 25 people. It included lessons on what questions to ask, how to recognize some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), how to properly record the interviews and how to recruit interviewees.

After the interview materials are collected and the paperwork is completed, the documents are sent to Washington, D.C. where they will be treated with museum-level care. A complete profile is then created for each veteran that is accessible to the general public both online and in-person at the LOC.

Marc Kimball, the state communications director for U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, said it is important to “capture their [the veterans’] personal accounts so that future generations can have access to them and learn about the realities of war.” He says Franken wants as many stories told as possible so that Minnesotan veterans can be included in this historic project.

Anyone can help contribute to the Veterans History Project as long as they fill out the required paperwork with their submissions. To find more information or how you can participate in the Veteran’s History Project, go to http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

Reporter Sophie Hoover is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.