This fall, Stephanie Rudy decided it was time to hand the microphone over, to see what veterans would say given the opportunity to speak. She spent months reaching out to local veterans and military organizations and visiting nursing homes, asking if veterans there might come forward to tell the stories that have long gone untold.
The idea for a community-wide event in Boulder germinated six years ago when Rudy spent a week at the Army War College in Pennsylvania at a program that invites civilians to learn a little of what service members are taught about war and the military. Her role was to tell the military what U.S. civilians and people in the Boulder community thought about the war and the military today.
But she realized there didn’t seem to be an opportunity in Boulder for people to listen to veterans, or acknowledge their service.
“This town doesn’t do anything to thank the military. There’s no community thing that supports the military,” Rudy says.
She created two weeks of programming at the Dairy Center for the Arts to do just that.
The Dairy Center, from the Boedecker movie theater to its art galleries to its performance space, will spend two weeks with programming focused on veterans from Nov. 7–21.
Many days begin with a “Coffee and Conversation” session — an informal gathering to hear or share the stories of veterans — and go on to include lectures, panels, films, theater and dance performances and even a book club. Programming will cover history and share ongoing work to assist with veterans reintegrating to civilian life, with panelists addressing issues from veteran homelessness to women’s history and experiences in the military, to resources available for veterans from yoga to mindfulness training to horse therapy. Veterans have been invited to participate in the morning conversations, sit on panels and participate in readings of prose and poetry and submit artwork inspired by their time in the military.
Veterans organizations including the Broomfield Veterans Memorial Museum, Women Marines Association, Veterans Helping Veterans and the University of Colorado student veterans center are involved in the event.
“When you think about the amazing sacrifice that not only the individuals make but their families, it’s really obvious to us that they’re not getting enough recognition. That’s a really awful way to say thank you,” says Bill Obermeier, executive director of the Dairy Center. “This is really a chance to let them tell their stories.”
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