Two free public presentations are coming up soon about an oral history interview project in Finney County, both as part of the History at High Noon and Evening at the Museum lecture series at the Finney County Historical Museum in Garden City.
One session is set for noon April 10 and the other at 7 p.m. April 16, both in the museum’s Mary Regan Conference Room, located at 403 S. Fourth Street in Garden City’s Finnup Park. Those who attend should use the museum’s north entrance. Beverages and refreshments will be provided, and listeners are welcome to bring their own lunch or dinner, if desired. The series is sponsored for the Finney County Historical Society by the Western Kansas Community Foundation.
Both presentations will be given by Caverly Hart, executive director of the Finnup Foundation Trust, along with Amy Heinemann, executive assistant, and Kylie Boyd, part-time executive assistant. The foundation is carrying out the project, with professionally conducted and recorded interviews of Finney County residents.
So far, six video interviews have been completed, with more local individuals yet to be identified and recorded.
The foundation has contracted with Life History Services, based in Madison, WI, and operated by a veteran interviewer and producer named Anita Hecht.
Hecht’s company has assisted more than 400 communities, public institutions, businesses, families and individuals in preserving their unique stories of the past.
Founded in 1997, the company began after Hecht was involved in conducting 40 survivor interviews as part of Steven Spielberg’s Visual History Foundation of the Holocaust.
The local project, with grant administration services provided by the historical society, is focused primarily on early-day recollections of life in Finney County.
Previous 2024 programs at the museum have addressed the events of 1924, the impact of immigration on Finney County, and two programs about the impressive Volga German Catholic church structures of Central Kansas. The series also offers two history programs per month in September, October, and November.
