Harvesting a Lifetime Summer Youth Workshop

An UlsterCorps collaboration with:
Jewish Family Services (JFS)
Ulster County Office of Employment & Training
Summer Youth Employment Program
Second Chance4Me, Seven21 Media Center

Watch Excerpts from the interviews
created by the students

UlsterCorps expanded Harvesting a Lifetime to include a youth media training program at the Seven21 Media Center in mid-town Kingston. From July 6th-August 14th UlsterCorps will be employing five youth through the Summer Youth Employment Program. The program creates a learning experience in a professional work environment, where youth gain media production and technology skills, as well as workforce skills. UlsterCorps organized volunteer videographers and teachers to train youth in media, editing, interviewing and job-readiness skills working with existing Harvesting a Lifetime footage and interviewing additional seniors. UlsterCorps collaborated with Office of Employment & Training Summer Youth Employment Program, Family of Woodstock’s JustConnect Teen Outreach Program, Second Chance4Me, Seven21 Media Center. If you would like to join our team of volunteer videographers & guest lecturers, please contact Beth at ulstercorps@gmail.com or call 481-0331.

Thank you so much to Lou & Mae Spina, SecondChance4 Me, and the Ellenbogens of 721 Media Center for donating your time, space and energy, for hosting and supporting the Summer Workshop!

Volunteer Trainers/Supervisors:
Ilene Cutler, Vision Pilots/UlsterCorps
Beth McLendon, UlsterCorps
Nancy Pompeo, UlsterCorps
Lin Sakai, UlsterCorps
Lou Spina, Second Chance4Me
Ruthie Staber, JustConnect, Family of Woodstock

Guest Lecturers:
Janet Baus, Communicatrix Media
Nan Bress, Docnography
Peter Darmi, Cloudcap Productions
Henry Ellenbogen, Seven21 Media Center
Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, Children’s Media Project
Mark Greene, Pecos Design
Melissa Hewitt, Visit Vortex
Eileen McAdam, Sound and Story Project
Ev Mann, Center for Creative Education

Youth Mentors/Instructors:
Ethan Burwell
Marilyn Chu
Chris Nostrand

Thank you to all our Summer Youth Workshop Participants for your dedication, creativity and curiosity, for learning
on the job and sharing that knowledge with each other, and for all your great work!

Harvesting a Lifetime Summer Celebration
Friday, August 14th, 2-5pm

At Our Summer Youth Workshop
Seven21 Media Center, Suite 260, Second Chance 4 Me
721 Broadway, Kingston, NY

We will celebrate the great work our youth interviewers, videographers and editors have accomplished over the past six weeks
And we will celebrate the lives of the Ulster County seniors we have had the honor of interviewing
And the contributions of all the wonderful volunteers and community centers which made this project possible

Our students are looking forward to meeting the seniors whose interviews they have been editing
And handing them DVD copies of the interviews they have prepared
Excerpts from the interviews will be on display
We are hoping as many people who have participated in the project as possible can attend so you can meet the students, we can thank you all personally and we can all celebrate this vibrant intergenerational community collaboration.
All are welcome.

Our first crop of Harvesting a Lifetime Ulster County Living History Project excerpts are online! Thank you so much to our contributing seniors for sharing their life stories, and to all our volunteers interviewers and videographers. Click above to view excerpts!

Harvesting a Lifetime is collaborative, County-wide intergenerational oral history project. The project, a collaboration between UlsterCorps and Jewish Family Services (JFS), engages volunteers, from high school age on up, to interview and record the treasured memories, stories and history of seniors from our Ulster County community. Each senior will be given a copy of the interview to share with their family, and excerpts will be published on our website as an online archive of Ulster County oral histories. The project was launched Memorial Day weekend 2009 and in its first month brought together 39 different volunteer interviewers & videographers to interview over 70 people at 12 sites around the county. Interviews were held at community centers, churches, synagogues, nursing homes and senior centers in locations throughout the county. Throughout the summer we employed five youth through the Summer Youth Workforce Development Program at Seven21 Media Center in mid-town Kingston to assist with this project. Volunteer videographers, teachers train youth in media, editing, interviewing & job-readiness skills working with existing Harvesting a Lifetime footage and interviewing additional seniors. Additional volunteers always welcome.