(Editors Note: The WVU Heritage Project video, a gift from the WVU Alumni Association, Emeritus Graduates and University Relations, is available for download here .)

West Virginia University students used to get the best ice cream in town from the agriculture department, then housed in Oglebay Hall.

Swimming in the cold pool in the old Mountainlair was something else to tell the folks back home about.

And alumni who have been gone from school for more than 50 years can tell in vivid detail what it felt like when World War II ended, or when the Cuban Missile Crisis was at its height.

Without WVU’s Heritage Project, stories like these would be homeless, told to a few, but not housed in the University’s collective memory.

The WVU Heritage Project is a labor of love, shared by the WVU Alumni Association, WVU Emeritus Graduates, WVU University Relations and every Mountaineer who tells a story.

The website—http://heritageproject.wvu.edu—will serve as an archive that anyone – alumni, students, writers, historians, researchers and journalists—can access. It’s for everyone interested in sharing and learning the story of WVU, year by year, generation by generation, story by story, memory by memory, person by person.

“Without a single piece of that history, our story would be less rich,” said Chris Martin, WVU’s vice president for University Relations. “When all the pieces are in place, we see a more complete picture of WVU.”

University Relations will be archiving video interviews with alumni on the site, and alumni are invited to send stories via recorded audio, video, music, photographs of their time at WVU and memorabilia, and in their own typewritten words.

We want to know about your time on campus. Your favorite hang out, class or professor. Tell us about a pivotal moment during your time here.

Was there a defining event of your time here at WVU? How did WVU affect your life, your career? What makes you most proud to be a Mountaineer?

Let us hear from you. To help you remember, visit our heritage site to view a new video titled “Our Story.” Voiced by WVU alumnus Jim Fagan, it tells the story of WVU, its people, its struggles, its mission – our home.

“For more than 100 years, the University has reached out to its people and passed on knowledge, determination and a loyal spirit,” said Al Ware, one of the principal organizers of the project and chair of the 2011 Emeritus Graduates reunion weekend activities where the video debuted. “Through these oral histories, we hope to convey the University story in more personal and meaningful ways.”

-WVU-

dm/05/13/11

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