North Canton Heritage Society’s Annual Biography Project features community citizens and THEIR story. With the help of Hoover High School’s AP English class, narratives and stories of the past are presented. We get to witness North Canton through the eyes of the people that have built their lives here, becoming a part of the community’s heritage and story.

Thanks to a 2009 grant from the Key Bank Foundation, students at North Canton’s Hoover High School have gotten to know more about the people who lived and shaped the city in the past century. Juniors from Miss Tiffany Walker’s Advanced Placement English Classes are paired with community residents of North Canton who volunteer their time to share their stories of living and working in the city. The students interview the year’s candidates, record their stories, scan photographs that document their lives, and then write the narratives of the candidates’ life experiences.

These stories are presented at an annual public reception at the North Canton Heritage Society. Photos, provided by candidates, and excerpts from the narratives are featured in a small exhibit at the Society’s museum. In addition to becoming part of the Society’s permanent archives, copies of the stories will be presented to each of the senior citizens to give to their families.

The project was started in hopes of connecting younger generations to the stories of those that came before them as well as highlighting North Canton citizens. Here, in NCHS, we take pride in celebrating, preserving, and sharing the community’s history. Truly standing behind the notion of this being “YOUR CITY…YOUR HISTORY.”

This year, NCHS has collected over 100 hours of Oral History with the help of Hoover High School students! These interviews will be a part of the NCHS archives.