The project’s name will soon change, but its mission remains the same.
Since 2006, freelance videographer Allan Cameron of Sylvan Lake has dedicated his life to making short films focused on the individual stories of Canadians who served in the Second World War and the Korean Conflict.
Founder of The Memories Recovered Project, Cameron, 43, has recorded video interviews averaging about an hour in length with 350 war veterans — many of whom have never told their stories to anyone else, including members of their own families.
He now finds himself having to rename his project because it is getting confused with a similar collection of Second World War stories being compiled by the Dominion-Historica Institute and funded by Canadian Heritage.
The new name is to be announced later this week, in time to decorate Cameron’s vehicle with new signage donated by Red Deer-based Trimline.
An intimate perspective on soldiers’ stories, Cameron’s project is geared to creating videos that veterans can share with their families. Each participant gets one copy for free. They are asked to pay $25 each for additional copies as a means to support the project, which runs almost entirely on donations.
The Memories Recovered Project is now a registered charity, able to provide tax receipts to donors, which is where the bulk of Cameron’s costs are recovered. Grants from various provincial programs and a number of branches of the Royal Canadian Legion have also helped keep the project going, says Cameron, who is starting a major fundraising drive so he can keep the project moving.
As war veterans grow older, maintaining the momentum becomes more urgent every day, says Cameron, who puts an average of 70 hours per week into the project.
While most of the people he has interviewed are located in Alberta, he has travelled from coast to coast to meet with veterans, including spending time during his vacation conducting interviews in his Nova Scotia home town.
Cameron says the value of his project is “priceless” because of what is lost when veterans die without having the opportunity to share their unique perspectives on war.
Of the 350 veterans he has interviewed so far, 50 have since died.
Only two of all the veterans he has interviewed had been interviewed by someone else before they died.
“That’s 99 per cent of the veterans I interviewed, had they not been interviewed, they wouldn’t be documented right now. If it doesn’t happen now, and soon, with the World War II and Korean War veterans, it’s lost forever.”
Memories Recovered was spurred with the death of Cameron’s great uncle, Perley Cameron, in 2001.
Cameron had been thinking about making a video with his great uncle, who had served with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. Cameron’s uncle had never spoken with family members about his experiences in the war. He died before they were able to get together for the interview.
Cameron is planning a trip to Winnipeg right after Remembrance Day to meet with Roy Walker, a former Highlander who served in Italy with another of his great uncles, Ernest Hill.
The men entered a village on July 25, 1944, and escaped fire from one group of German tanks, only to turn a corner and find themselves staring into the gun barrel of yet another tank.
Walker, who was captured during the skirmish, was among the last people to hear Hill’s call for help before he died under enemy fire.
Examples of Cameron’s work are available at various locations, including the Bomber Command Museum in Nanton and H.J. Cody High School in Sylvan Lake, as well as in the town’s archives. He is negotiating with members of the Harvard Historical Aviation Society at Penhold to place some videos in their collections.
Information about the project, including samples of interviews, are available online at www.themrp.org
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com