Preserving Local Stories Through Service
Soldiers, Scouts, Students is an idea communities can use to connect people across generations around local history, service, and the preservation of meaningful places
A Simple Idea
Many communities have memorials, plaques, historic places, and names that people pass every day without knowing the stories behind them.
Soldiers, Scouts, Students encourages people to look at what already exists in their own community — the places, stories, organizations, schools, veterans, Scouts, students, historians, and other local resources — and find ways to bring them together through service and preservation.
The goal is not to create another organization. It is to offer an idea that communities can adopt, adapt, and make their own.
How the Work Comes Together
There is no single model for a Soldiers, Scouts, Students project. One community might research a memorial and make its story accessible through a QR code. Another might involve students in recording local history, Scouts in caring for a meaningful place, or veterans and historians in preserving stories that could otherwise be lost.
Projects may involve research, digitization, interviews, signs, maps, landscaping and service, school participation, Scout groups, veterans organizations, libraries, historical commissions, local media, municipal partners, or other resources already present in the community.
The idea is intentionally flexible: start with what is around you, work with who is available, and build something meaningful for your own community.
Community-Led and Non-Political
Soldiers, Scouts, Students is grassroots and non-political. It is not an organization to join and does not establish chapters or require communities to use a particular project model.
SSS does not accept donations directly. When funding is needed for a local project, it can be coordinated through established local organizations or community partners.
Current and Recent Work
Examples include the Leicester Gold Star Squares; work surrounding the South Spencer Schoolhouse and veterans memorials at Gadbois Square; the Brian Sweeney 9/11 memorial in Spencer; and local research, service, and video projects that help preserve the stories connected to memorials, people, and places.
Learn More
Soldiers, Scouts, Students has its own website with more about the idea, current projects, and ways communities can put it to use. You can also follow selected project stories and videos through P&H’s YouTube channel.