CCU's Veterans Center and Mercy Care partner to preserve oral histories
Through the new partnership program, the Center for Military & Veterans Studies will provide staff training in interview techniques according to Library of Congress protocols, technical support and historical research to Mercy Care staff and volunteers who will conduct oral history interviews with terminally ill veterans under hospice care. DVD copies of the interviews will be provided to the veterans and the families, and through the Center for Military & Veterans Studies, will be placed in a permanent collection at the Library of Congress and other archival institutions.
The Center for Military & Veterans Studies at Coastal Carolina University, which was established in 2010, is engaged in a variety of events and activities related to American veterans and military studies, including a partnership program with the Library of Congress to record and preserve oral history from veterans of all modern eras. Mercy Care, the Grand Strand's first and only nonprofit hospice located in Horry County, has been meeting the end-of-life needs of patients and their families since 1981.
"We are thankful to Mercy Care for helping us expand our outreach to the veterans community and for enabling us to collect and preserve irreplaceable oral history from our veterans which otherwise would be lost for all time," said historian Rod Gragg, director of the Center for Military & Veterans Studies. "Mercy Care has the ability and expertise to engage and honor veterans that we could not otherwise reach and that expands our mission to veterans and to the community at large."
"It's a wonderful partnership," said Sara-Jo Faucher, Mercy's executive director and CEO. "Mercy Care has decades of experience in providing quality care, including care for our terminally ill veterans. This partnership with the Center for Military & Veterans Studies is enhancing our mission to care for and honor our veterans and their families."
Mercy Care already has an honors program in which staff and volunteers pay tribute to veterans in the Grand Strand region with a pinning ceremony that recognizes their service and sacrifices in uniform. At Thursday's news conference, local veterans who have participated in the Veterans Oral History Project at the Center for Military & Veterans Studies will be honored by Mercy Care.
Mercy Care, the Grand Strand's hometown hospice, is the oldest, community-based, not-for-profit hospice organization in Horry County. For more than 30 years, Mercy Care has provided the highest quality care to patients and families dealing with advanced illness, while honoring human dignity and personal choice. Mercy serves Horry, Georgetown and Marion counties. More information about programs and services is available at www.mercyhospice.org.
The Center for Military & Veterans Studies is located at Coastal Carolina University and produces the television program "Military Memoirs," which features oral history interviews with American veterans, and airs on Educational Channel 12 on Time-Warner Cable and HTC Cable daily at 10:30 a.m., 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.