As the nation pauses on Memorial Day weekend to remember its fallen soldiers, the Albert Gore Research Center at MTSU is asking the public to help continue honoring the military veterans still with us.

The Gore Research Center is an official partner in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project and wants to continue adding veterans’ stories to its extensive archives.

“The Veterans History Project is a public service as part of the mission of the Gore Research Center, but we depend on donations from the public to keep the project going,” said Jim Williams, director of the Albert Gore Research Center. “Costs include supplies, travel and transcription fees.” 

For Memorial Day 2014, the center is asking the public to consider a $50 donation to “adopt, symbolically,” an interview with a veteran, Williams said.

The tax-deductible donation of $50 or more can be made by mail or online:

• Checks can be made payable to the MTSU Foundation and mailed to Director, Albert Gore Research Center, MTSU Box 193, 1301 E. Main St., Murfreesboro TN  37132. Donors should note "Veterans History Project” on their checks.
• Donors can contribute online via the secure MTSU Foundation website at http://bit.ly/1pgOWdk. Just click the button for “Adopt a Veteran.”

For more information, visit http://gorecenter.mtsu.edu/AdoptVeteran.pdf.

Veterans and those who know a veteran who would like to be interviewed should contact oral history project coordinator Jim Havron at jim.havron@mtsu.edu.

To date, the Gore Research Center has conducted and registered more than 250 interviews with the Library of Congress as part of the Middle Tennessee Oral History Project. For information and to listen to the recordings, visit http://gorecenter.mtsu.edu/research/MTOralHistory.shtml.

The center has also archived 139 interviews of veterans completed by MTSU students for class assignments. For information about these interviews, or to listen to the recordings, visit http://gorecenter.mtsu.edu/research/VeteransOralHistories.shtml.

Any veteran of any branch of service is now eligible to be included in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. For more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/vets.