Join us on Zoom on Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 2 pm for "The Italian Offensive" a presentation by Kevin Braafladt, the Army Sustainment Command Historian for the Rock Island Arsenal. This presentation will be presented live over Zoom. The event is free to the public. Donations are greatly appreciated.

Surviving a Prisoner or War (POW) Camp, describing the sight, sounds and smells of Vietnam, feeling the bitter cold of a Korean winter. Sara has heard them all and wants to share these amazing first-hand accounts with you. No one speaks better about the experiences of war than the veterans themselves. Sara preserves these stories through video to help educate the public about life in the military. You will hear accounts of the day Pearl Harbor was bombed and the morning the Twin Towers were attacked, what it was like to be a woman in the military in WWII and what it feels like to be in and IED explosion driving across Iraq.

About Sara Maniscalco Robinson:
Sara Maniscalco Robinson, a Boone, Iowa native has served in the Iowa National Guard since 1997 as a broadcast journalist. This service has enabled her to travel the world and learn about story telling in some of the worlds harshest climates, including winters in Germany and Kosovo and summers in El Salvador and Egypt.

In 2007, Sara was asked to volunteer to interview some veterans to help The Iowa Gold Star Museum on a video project for their upcoming POW exhibit. What started as a volunteer opportunity quickly evolved into a mission to interview our nations heroes before the stories of their service are lost with the veterans who carry them.

Sara founded the Iowa Veterans’ Perspective in 20017 in hopes of continuing the veteran storytelling program. She often presents to churches, veteran’s groups, youth camps and much more. She focuses on letting the veterans tell their own stories through her powerful videos using historical photos and video to better tell the story. Her passion for storytelling and ability to speak with veterans in their own language makes her the perfect catalyst for veteran and civilians to connect with each other.

This event is free to the public, but donations are welcome.

This program is supported by Humanities Iowa.

This program will stream using Zoom software on Eventbrite. You will receive the link to join from Eventbrite- so please check your inbox and spam box.

Presentation will last roughly 45 minutes to an hour. Q+A session will be held afterwards.

Register on Eventbrite.com

For questions about GAHC programming, email info@gahc.org or call 563-322-8844

Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen was born in Pekin IL in 1896 to a first-generation German immigrant. Though he experienced an exceptionally humble Midwestern upbringing with more than its fair share of adversity, he rose to national prominence throughout his nearly four-decades tenure in the US Congress. With a larger-than-life personality, he was well-known for his speaking ability and unparalleled use of language to persuade and to inspire. He used these talents—among others—to become to most essential influence in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In response to a reporter’s question about why he had taken such a lead role in the Civil Rights Act, he remarked: “I come from immigrant German stock. My mother stood on Ellis Island as a child of 17, with a tag around her neck directing that she be sent to Pekin, Illinois. Our family had opportunities in Illinois, and the essence of what we’re trying to do in the Civil Rights bill is to see that others have opportunities in this country.”

This presentation will explore the circumstances and stories of Dirksen’s upbringing, and how they helped shaped his personality, his leadership style, and a destiny that he shared with the nation.

The presentation will stream live on Eventbrite on Sunday, February 28th at 2pm. A short Q+A will follow the presentation.

The presentation is free, but donations are greatly appreciated.

Register on Eventbrite.com

About the speaker:

Tiffany White currently serves as the Executive Director of the Dirksen Congressional Center, located in Everett McKinley Dirksen’s hometown of Pekin, IL. Everett Dirksen served in the US House and US Senate throughout the course of nearly four decades, and was the Senate’s Republican Minority Leader from 1959 until his death in 1969. He is best known for his indispensable role in ushering into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Center is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization with a mission to enhance the public’s understanding of Congress, its people, and its policies.

Before assuming leadership of the Center in 2019, White served as Chief of Staff to Illinois State Representative Mike Unes. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Pekin Main Street, and also served for five years on staff in the 18th Congressional District office, where she managed immigration and State Department-related casework.

White is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a 2005 graduate of Pekin Community High School. She acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Speech Communication, with minor concentrations in both American History and American Religious Studies. She is a 2010 Graduate of the R. David Tebben Leadership School (named after her late father and former Mayor of Pekin), and a member of the 2018 class of Peoria Magazine’s 40 Leaders Under Forty.

White and her husband Ben live in Pekin with their three daughters: Jane (6), Claire (4), and Molly (1). White’s hobbies include playing the piano, following the US Supreme Court, curating her best possible family life, and collecting dresses. She is an enthusiastic supporter of Fine Arts, and a devoted member of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Pekin.

Her approach to life is dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt’s famous saying, that the best prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Franz Schubert’s Winterreise is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the German song-cycle repertoire. Written nearly 200 years ago, it may seem that the story of a wanderer making sense of his place in the world without love is just a love story gone wrong.

However, as we approach one year of living in a pandemic, the wanderer’s feelings of isolation and loneliness seem more relevant today than perhaps at any point in our lives.

Join SAU Music faculty, baritone Nathan Windt and pianist Marian Lee, as they perform excerpts from the cycle, and discuss the connection between the wanderer’s struggles and our own today, and how to (try to) make sense of our place in this world. SAU's Counseling Center will also provide resource links after the event for those struggling with issues of isolation, loneliness, or other mental health needs.

This concert is free to the public and will be live streamed on the SAU Music Facebook page. Sign up on Facebook.