Natalie Gunn

Service Learning Project

History 2710

Professor Mulderink

Service Learning Project

This semester I wanted to do a project that would be more fulfilling in not only my life,

but others as well. I wanted to do something special that would have a lasting impact and

importance. I finally decided to do something I probably should have started a long time ago:

compile my grandfather’s war photos and stories into a nice album so he and my family would

always have something to remember his heroic efforts. But after getting started with it and

talking to my grandfather, it became much more than just a project to remember a World War

Two veteran; it became a full blown endeavor to get to know a wonderful man who is not only

my grandpa, but someone who has experienced so much and helped numerous ways everyone he

encounters. The project now incorporates his whole life, from birth to now, including photos,

written and recorded( by me) stories, and other memoirs such as report cards and ticket stubs. As

I learned more and more about my grandpa, the more I wanted to include. I came to realize that it

would be impossible for me to have the whole things finished by the end of the semester, in fact,

this may take me all year. But I have loved every second of it and it is coming along and it has

changed me in ways that no other effort in my life could have.

My Grandpa is Richard Gunn. He is a very good man and someone I have always

admired. But I now have such a deep love for him and every day I am more and more grateful for

him and what he is done. Words cannot even begin to describe how I feel now. I listen to him tell

me all these amazing stories and I cannot believe that this man is my own grandpa. I only hope

that my finished product can worthily show what kind of person he is.

Audience and Beneficiaries

Obviously, this project has benefitted and impacted me unbelievably. But I also wanted to

do it for my grandpa and the rest of my family, and of course, family yet to come. And like I

previously explained, it has already done more than I bargained for.

I also think it has really helped my grandpa. He just loves talking about anything and

everything, especially about his childhood and past. I used to actually get really annoyed by this;

he would always corner me during dinner or something and try to tell me stories and I would just

tune him out. Now I regret that. Not only did I miss out on cool things my grandpa had to tell me,

but im sure it made him feel bad too. So this project gave me a perfect opportunity to make up

for all he has done and also let him do something he loves: talk.

This will also greatly benefit the rest of my family (the Gunn side) and future

grandchildren and great grandchildren. I deeply feel that it is important to document and

remember war stories and events and the general history of this country and there is no better

way to keep track of it than let those who lived through it testify of their experiences. It is

important to see and understand real personal stories so that the past is not repeated.

Workload and Timetable

Although originally not intended to be a huge life-covering memoir, that is exactly what it

has turned into. I am not finished, but I have completed organizing all the photos and captioning

them, and including a little story along with each one. I have also organized all of his war

“souvenirs” such as letters, foreign tickets, and his other war documents. With this section I

included stories that my grandpa told me and also re-typed his own account. Also included are

journal entries from during the war. These were very moving to read.

The way I got all the stories and snippets from my grandpa was really fun. I am over at

his house all the time, and so during lunch or just when I go over to watch a movie with my

grandparents or do laundry, we would always take at least half an hour (once we talked for four

hours straight) and he would just tell me little things he could remember. Other times we would

get out the photo albums and he would tell me about each picture and I would write it down as he

spoke. This often led to other wayward stories about my dad and other funny stuff about my

family. The Gunn side of my family is relatively small, I only have three cousins and two uncles,

and one of them is actually dead. I also know that there is a lot I don’t know about my family as

my dad is ten years younger than his older brothers and so talking to my grandpa has taught me

many things.

I did not have a specific time table or schedule for when I would talk with my grandpa, it

was more of just whenever we were together. I go there almost everyday for lunch or just

between classes so I was able to get a lot done without drastically changing my routine. I did

however end up spending more and more time over there in the evenings, as we (including my

grandma) would all become enthralled with whatever part of their lives we were talking about. It

has been so good for me and my grandparents to spend this quality time together and it has

brought us all closer. Although I cannot give a detailed account of hours, I would spend at least 5

hours each week just working on this with my grandpa and that does not count my individual

work of sorting photos, taking them out of old albums and putting them in the new ones I bought,

and just basic organizing what I wanted to do. My mom got really interested in what I was

making so unfinished album is now up in Riverton with her, as she is now helping me too. We

have a really nice album for the pictures that comes with space to write a brief caption of the

photo and we have most of the war pictures done and formatted and much of his early life in

Lyndyll too. This is because I started with just the war but after deciding I wanted to make a full

lifelong book for him, I went to the beginning of his life and I am working my way up.

I did not use any online sources, this is all strictly what my grandpa has done and what he

has told us. Eventually I think I will so I can better track my geneology but so far I have just

started on a real nice family tree that someday I will paint and hang up. It only goes back about 5

generations but that is a lot of people! It is when I go back as far as possible that I will use the

internet.

I have really enjoyed this project. It turned into so much more than I expected. I have

gotten my whole family interested in it and we cant wait for it to be finished so we can enjoy the

final resulting product. I have learned so much about my grandpa and also myself and I wish I

could more articulately explain how this effort has impacted me but all I can really say is that I

love my grandpa and I truly appreciate every single aspect of his life. History is so important in

everyone’s lives as it defines who we are today and helps us understand who we can become

tomorrow. I hope that this album (really it is many but we are putting them all together) is

something that is preserved and treasured among all my family and maybe even others.