The Project Ends

I've made one last "video" of Shiloh pictures set to music, pictures that I've gathered for this project.  Now the project is ending, I'm both sad and proud to say.  I've collected over 100 in-depth interviews, 2000 scanned photos and documents, and 10 recorded "history party" gatherings, all of these from Shiloh folks from across the country and across the years.  These materials will live in archives for the future so that researchers can access them and learn about this program that was unique in history.  It was a Church of Christ outreach that connected people all across different parts of America in very fascinating ways, sometimes connections with difficult results, sometimes with quite beautiful ones.    We now have a permanent record of that.

If you are a Shiloh alum and have documents and/or photos that you didn't get a chance to add to this project this year, do not despair.  The plan is that materials like yours will belong to the archives at David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and so you will be able to send them there to add to the continuing story.

I’ve been able to meet many, many wonderful people in this project and learn about what their time at Shiloh meant in their lives.   Everyone I’ve spoken to has been thoughtful and caring.  I stayed in the homes of former Shiloh workers and friends.  I attended gatherings of people in the Shiloh family, and I’ve seen people reconnect who haven’t seen each other in years.  It has been a very meaningful time getting to know so many of these good people.  Some of them even knew me when I was very little.  How sweet to reconnect with them as an adult!  Some of them have told me about my own family history, a very meaningful experience for me.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this project possible and who helped make it good.  To the current Shiloh folks, keep going!  We are behind you!  And to all of the kids and young people whose lives have been involved in Shiloh throughout the years, this is dedicated to you.