Help needed to continue saving living memories of Wilkes folks

The first video collection containing the lifelong memories of longtime Wilkes County residents will soon be available for public preview and sale, and New South Productions needs the public's help to preserve even more Wilkes County memories.

The public can preview the oral and living history interviews at the next New South Board meeting, April 26 at 5:15 at the Mary Willis Library. "You'll be able to get a sense of what New South is producing," said Stephanie Macchia, President of New South Productions, "And we hope you'll make a taxdeductible donation there or you can mail your donations to New South Production Inc." The address is P.O. Box 76, Washington 30673.

"Any size donation is encouraged," she said. "We have so many of our citizens to film over the coming months and years, this project is definitely long-term." Macchia said. "We intend to take the revenue from the sales of the first installment and apply them directly to the next round of interviews and production." she said.

To execute a project that will yield a multi-volume collection of DVD interviews to be continued for any length of time, New South is placing a focus on fundraising now. "We have a couple of fundraising projects in the works now," Macchia said. "They're being designed to be fun and innovative, and we can't wait!"

The first installment of the collection will soon be made available for sale to the general public, Macchia said, "It features a wealth of forgotten memories of our great city and county. I'm very pleased to be this far along in the project so soon. We have only just begun but with the interviews going so well and covering such a broad range of topics, we are months ahead of schedule in releasing our first collection of narratives."

With plans to develop a fulllength documentary on the Piedmont region of Georgia with a focus on Wilkes County and Washington in the next year, New South is charting a course for long term growth in representing the area's heritage, she said. "We have already started applying for grant funding and are very encouraged about the projects we're undertaking."

New South Productions, started in 2003, is the second generation of a project initially created to develop resources for a large-scale outdoor drama about the region and its history. Since New South Productions' creation, the group has developed other new concepts to tell and preserve history in a way that draw regional Heritage tourism, Macchia said. "With these new projects promising to appeal to a broad range of educators, historians and travelers, New South Productions has stepped into the 21st century and with a quite a bang."

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