Olympia City Hall

“The Third Thirty” oral history project highlights stories of Olympia elders

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OLYMPIA –– The Olympia Heritage Commission met Wednesday evening to learn about “The Third Thirty,” an oral history project led by Elaine Vradenburgh, an oral historian and local educator. 

Those involved with the project worked with city officials to focus on documenting the life stories of elder citizens. The project takes the form of a podcast. The project is paid for from the city’s arts commission and is overseen by an Olympia-based nonprofit called Window Seat Media. 

Vradenburgh runs a nonprofit called Window Seat Media, which is based in Olympia and is just a few years old.

“We’re a collaborative of multimedia storytellers,” said Vradenburgh. “We use story as a catalyst for conversation, connection and change.”

The project started in Fall 2018 when Window Seat Media paired up with another local group, Senior Services for South Sound. The project is supposed to focus on, among other things, how the time and place people are born in affects who they are for the rest of their lives. 

“We’ve had a variety of participants,” Vrandenburgh said. “We’ve interviewed about a dozen folks, really from a variety of backgrounds, racial, ethnic, religious, and people who grew up in all parts of the country, small towns, urban areas. One of the things we’re really interested in this process is really focusing on everyday folks, the everyday people who make up who we are here in Olympia.”

Vradenburgh also wanted the project to focus on individuals who were part of the Olympia community during the time when many of the artistic and creative institutions began.

“Part of the purpose of who we decided to interview is really focusing on people in their third thirty that either were living here or came to this place during the 70s [or] early 80s, when a lot of creative, artistic, [and] cultural institutions came to life,” explained Vradenburgh. “Things like the Olympia Film Society, the Olympia Food Co-op, the Farmer’s Market, of course Evergreen was here.”

Just two episodes in, the project received positive feedback, and Vradenburgh’s team decided from there to further develop it into a broader project.

“That’s where we started to have conversation with Marygrace [Goddu] about partnerships with the city around bringing this project to a new place,” said Vradenburgh of Marygrace Goddu, the arts, cultures and heritage program coordinator. 

You can listen to “The Third Thirty” on their website, windowseatmedia.org, or click here.

 

The Third Thirty, Olympia City Hall, local arts and culture, Elaine Vrandenburgh, Window Seat Media, Senior Services for South Sound, Marygrace Goddu

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