East County Citizens Alliance to host community recording sessions

The East County Citizens Alliance (ECCA) will host two recording sessions this fall for its East County Voices project, an audio story collection project aimed at strengthening community through storytelling.

The recording sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, and Saturday, Dec. 7,  at the Camas police  station, located at 2100 N.E. Third Ave, in Camas.

Earlier this year, ECCA launched the project to record and preserve conversations between pairs of local family members, friends or coworkers in an effort to strengthen bonds between community members and encourage mutual appreciation and respect.

“It’s an opportunity to start a meaningful conversation with someone you care about,” said Barb Seaman, the project’s coordinator. “Describe the interests you share, ask about their life, learn about their family history, or tell them you love them.”

The resulting conversations are professionally recorded and uploaded to the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. The model is based on StoryCorps, a national project that has facilitated and recorded thousands of conversations throughout the country for 20 years.

East County Voices began collecting stories last spring and will continue through the end of December.

To listen to East County Voices audio stories, visit eastcountyvoices.org/east-county-voices. 

“The best way to understand how the project works is to listen to some of the local conversations we’ve already recorded,” Seaman said. “They’re so amazing — you listen to them and truly understand people and our local history in a new way.”