About COMMUNITY STORIES

Community Stories is a project that aims to preserve the treasured voices of the citizens of our local communities. The idea was conceived in 2014 by Mary Schultz and her sister-in-law Sheri Rolli Ramaker. Mary's sister Cris has Fredrick's Ataxia and her voice is slowly becoming harder to understand. They decided to record her voice to remember it. Later, the website itself was inspired by the passing of Ethel Olson, a local Spring Valley citizen. After Ethel passed, they realized all of her wonderful stories were lost. Mary and her daughter, Lisa Vehrenkamp recorded a number of stories and created this website to host them. In this modern age of technology, it is so easy to capture and share people’s stories and voices for everyone to enjoy and remember.

Community Stories is interested in the stories of our citizens growing up and living in our local communities. We are also very interested in capturing the stories and voices of our veterans. We plan to partner with the Spring Valley Area Community Foundation, Spring Valley and Wykoff Historical Societies, and the SV Public Library to capture and share these stories.

Do you have a story to tell?

If you would like to have your story on Community Stories, please contact us. We can interview you or your loved one in person. We will be in Phoenix, Arizona through March and in Spring Valley Minnesota in April. If you have a recording of your loved one please contact us to discuss if it can be used on Community Stories.