Launched in 2006, the goal of the Hudson Valley History Project Gardiner is to preserve the personal histories of Gardiner's longest standing residents. Each of these Story Subjects has lived in Gardiner for at least 50 years. The project's coordinators have enlisted the services of local writers to document and edit these special stories. The coordinators hope to broaden the scope of the project as time goes on.
Gardiner Library Board President Barbara Sides, Town Librarian Peg Lotvin, former Gardiner Children's Librarian Ken Greene, the Gardiner Historical Society and Pulitzer-prize winning Town Historian Carleton Mabee are all in support of the project. They consider it to be a major contribution to the Local History section of the new library when it is complete.
The Gardiner Library is both the clearing house for the project, and the repository for the finished stories. Writers are provided with a briefing packet containing a list of potential interview questions drawn from the Library of Congress's oral history website www.storycorps.net and other relevant information.
