Traveling Exhibits
NJ Youth Corps and AmeriCorps members take an ordinary classroom in high school and convert it into a museum complete with carpeting, special lighting, 20 display cases, over 100 mounted photographs and letter, and over 140 personal items that people have left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington DC. Vietnam Memories is operated as a partnership with the National Park Services.
"Click here for VIETNAM BROCHURE"
"Click here for VIETNAM BROCHURE"
Vietnam Memories – Stories Left at the Wall
Comments from the People Who Have Visited the Traveling Museum.
The following comments are excerpted from our guest books.
They include remarks from students, teachers, principals and community visitors.
Comments from the People Who Have Visited the Traveling Museum.
The following comments are excerpted from our guest books.
They include remarks from students, teachers, principals and community visitors.
- “History has no value unless it touches our lives. You have touched my soul.”
- “These are stories that the textbooks don’t tell you. Thee are the ones that stay in your heart.”
- “This was an unbelievable experience, one that I will never forget.
- When you see the human perspective of a war like this nothing else matters.”
- What an incredible and moving exhibit that everyone needs to see.
- Thank you for keeping the memories alive.”
- It’s amazing how many of the things that we hear and learn about never really sink in.
- Thanks for the unfortunate insight.”
- “I will never forget this.”
- “Powerful and moving. I hurt for all of the victims, American and Vietnamese
- Hopefully everyone who sees this exhibit will take a part of it home with them.”
- “I now understand my Dad’s hurt for lost friends. Thanks.”
- “I really didn’t understand – but now I do.”
- “I will never forget the feeling I get coming into this exhibit. I think I will visit all week so I can memorize the pictures, objects and letters so they will become memories, my memories, a part of me.”
- “I am heartbroken over what happened and what I didn’t know.”
- “I don’t cry often. Today I did.”
- “I saw my Dad.
- It wasn’t his picture, but it was exactly what he had described to me.
- Lying on the side of a hill shot in two places and with a piece of grenade in his neck.
- He didn’t think he’d make it. He prayed: “God make it quick.”
- But the Lord kept him alive.
- My dad is a hero, but I don’t think he sees himself that way,
- but rather he sees himself as one slipping through the flames.
- I don’t think he’s ashamed or proud, just sad for his friends.
- He almost never talks about it, but when he does he gets upset and cries.
- My Dad is a big man and he never cries…….
- Makes you think.”
- “In four years of high school I have not learned as much as I did in one period.”
This note was left by a 9th grade teacher.
As an English teacher, I try to instill in my students the lessons of literature – universal truths and understandings about life, death, love, hate, prejudice, joy, family, individuality, despair and hope. We spend our days reading about the triumphs and tragedies of others. When they walk into this exhibit - they are invincible and immortal. They are young. Seeing the lives and deaths of so many affected by war, violence and politics – by the struggle between loyalty and life – they are somehow transformed. Their faces grow sullen. Their whispers are of shock and sadness. Their eyes well up as they kneel before the photos and letters.
My lessons are given meaning as they connect with the reality of the human condition. The themes we study are no longer abstractions. They are faces, helmets, toothbrushes and toy cars.Thank you for bringing this exhibit into our school and doing in an hour what I try so diligently to accomplish in a year. As my students exit the museum I see understanding and sympathy. It is a difficult objective and a powerful accomplishment. Know that your hard work and dedication to preserving the memories have meant something special – not only to those who have died or are lost, bualso to those who are still living and learning.
As an English teacher, I try to instill in my students the lessons of literature – universal truths and understandings about life, death, love, hate, prejudice, joy, family, individuality, despair and hope. We spend our days reading about the triumphs and tragedies of others. When they walk into this exhibit - they are invincible and immortal. They are young. Seeing the lives and deaths of so many affected by war, violence and politics – by the struggle between loyalty and life – they are somehow transformed. Their faces grow sullen. Their whispers are of shock and sadness. Their eyes well up as they kneel before the photos and letters.
My lessons are given meaning as they connect with the reality of the human condition. The themes we study are no longer abstractions. They are faces, helmets, toothbrushes and toy cars.Thank you for bringing this exhibit into our school and doing in an hour what I try so diligently to accomplish in a year. As my students exit the museum I see understanding and sympathy. It is a difficult objective and a powerful accomplishment. Know that your hard work and dedication to preserving the memories have meant something special – not only to those who have died or are lost, bualso to those who are still living and learning.