Singer-storyteller Bill Jamerson will speak and perform during the May 8 Thursdays at the U event at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire – Barron County.
Bill Jamerson
Jamerson, based in Ironwood, Michigan, will present “Dollar-A-Day Boys,” about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall in Ritzinger Hall. The presentation, the final event of the spring series, also will be livestreamed at ricelaketv.com.
The CCC was a federal work program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The program provided work for 17- to 25-year-old men by placing them in work camps where they undertook conservation projects, such as planting trees, fighting fires, restoring rivers, terracing hills for farmers and building state and national parks. The men were paid $30 per month, with $25 sent directly to their families.
In Jamerson’s program, he tells stories he learned firsthand from the men, performs original songs with his guitar, reads from his novel and shows a short video clip from his PBS film “Camp Forgotten: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Michigan.” The program is as entertaining as it is important and sheds light on a little-known story.
For the past 20 years, Jamerson has presented programs about lumberjacks, iron miners, ski jumpers and CCC boys. He has presented his CCC program in more than 20 states and at dozens of state and national parks built by the CCC. He previously wrote and produced a dozen historical documentaries for Michigan Public Television. In 2007, he published the historical novel “Big Shoulders,” based on the life of a CCC boy.
The Thursdays at the U weekly series is free and open to the public thanks to support from the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation. Neither seating reservations nor parking permits are needed for in-person attendees.
Although in-person attendance is encouraged, most talks in the series are livestreamed. They also are archived and can be watched later on the Thursdays at the U webpage.
The Thursdays at the U fall series will begin in September.
For more information, contact Laura Holden at 715-788-6207 or holdenlk@uwec.edu.
