I was convinced at an early that people learn best from the stories they have heard, stories that seem to touch something deep within them. I use to sit in history class spouting off dates of important battles, births, and other events. Guess what? I forgot those dates but I do remember the stories. For example Abraham Lincoln who, while a boy, would go to church on Sunday and then would stand on a tree stump on Monday mornings and mimic, to his friends, the pastor and his message verbatim. I learned keen insights into many of my hero’s characteristics by getting to know them through the stories I read and heard.

While working for a local heritage development organization in Hollidaysburg, I saw just how a powerful a story can motivate people to clean a stream, start a business, build a trail, and preserve a building. These stories now are shared with thousands of people because someone took the opportunity to conserve the original story. Remember when we talk about heritage conservation we are talking about; the most good, for the most people, over the longest period of time.

Welcome to Storytrax.com. We (Jack, Paula, Randy, and myself) created the site so that people just like you had a place to share their own stories about themselves, their families, and communities. Our goal is for these stories, America’s Stories, to bring people together, to create empowered individuals who want to inspire their families, their communities and their nation. I encourage you to explore the site, read the stories, start a forum discussion,  comment on a blog, create your own microsite and tell others about your experience here at www.storytrax.com.

The site will continue to get better as we hear more from you. This is your community and we desire your input. We want you to be a part of the new things taking place. We have already hear from several of you about changes and they have been great. Our intention is to create a forum topic so that you can directly comment on site issues and make suggestions. We also will be blogging weekly to let you know about all the exciting things happening at www.storytrax.com. So stop back often and participate frequently.

See ya around the site,

Erin (ecooley)