The American Folklife Center (AFC) continued its mandate "to preserve and present American folklife" through a number of outreach programs. "Save Our Sounds," a joint program with the Smithsonian Institution and supported by the White House Millennium Council's "Save America's Treasures" program, seeks to preserve a priceless heritage of sound recordings housed at the two institutions.
The American Folklife Center continued to gather veterans' stories for the congressionally-mandated Veterans History Project (VHP). Established in 2000, the program's purpose is to record and preserve first-person accounts of those who defended their country during wartime. By year's end, AFC had acquired more than 3,200 multi-format collections from veterans of all 20th century U.S. conflicts. AFC worked with the American Folklore Society and the Oral History Association to train volunteers to conduct interviews. To date, 25 workshops have been held in 14 states. With the help of AARP, a principal supporter of the VHP, the Veterans History Project produced a five-minute promotional video that was sent to all 450 partner organizations and members of Congress.
On June 6, a program to mark the 56th anniversary of D-Day was held on the deck of the USS Intrepid in New York City harbor. The program, which was attended by about 500 people, garnered many pledges to participate in the Veterans History Project.
