PA Volunteer Specializes in Military Legacy Binders
Barb’s motivation is simple yet powerful: “Stories shouldn’t die with them.” She works to preserve history, honor the veterans at the end of life, and ensure their courage and sacrifices live on. Through her quiet, tireless work, Barb ensures that history doesn’t fade, it lives on in the pages of a binder, in the memories shared, and in the hearts of those who turn the pages.
When Barb’s father, a World War II Navy veteran, passed away, she witnessed something profound. Her mother, who had served as a Navy WAVE during the same war, carefully gathered every faded photograph, yellowed letter, and cherished memento into a single, heartfelt book to preserve his legacy. That quiet act of love left an indelible mark on Barb. Today, she carries that inspiration forward by creating legacy binders for veterans in hospice care, as well as for friends, family, and even strangers she connects with online.
At Ascend Hospice, Barb specializes in Military Legacy Binders. These thick, spiral-bound volumes are lovingly assembled with scanned medals in full color, hand-highlighted unit rosters, newspaper clippings, and personal stories unearthed through hours of dedicated research. Her go-to resources include Ancestry.com, Fold3, FamilySearch.com, Wikipedia, and Google. She has completed nearly 50 binders over the past two years, all done as a labor of love, with no charge and no expectation of recognition.
Barb’s motivation is simple yet powerful: “Stories shouldn’t die with them.” She works to preserve history, honor the veterans at end of life, and ensure their courage and sacrifices live on. By piecing together details that families often thought were lost forever, service records, battle accounts, or quiet acts of bravery, she brings forgotten chapters back to light. One particularly moving discovery for her has been the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, a grueling 88 day engagement in late 1944 where American troops endured brutal conditions in dense German woods, facing tree-burst artillery, relentless rain, and immense hardship. Learning about the selflessness, courage, and character of those young soldiers leaves her in awe.
The binders are presented to living veterans, allowing them to hold their own history in their hands, or to grieving families after a loved one’s passing. The reactions are often emotional: a widow’s tears, a grandchild’s gasp of “He never told us”, or a tighter hug after reading about a great-grandfather’s Purple Heart. For Barb, the greatest reward is the joy she spreads, the way these books help families reconnect with their heritage, uncover hidden pieces of their loved one’s past, and feel a deeper connection to the veterans who served.
What drives her to keep going, often losing track of time as she dives deeper into research is the overwhelming sense of touching lives across the nation. Each binder is a tribute not only to the individual veteran but also to her own parents, to her uncle who was a POW, to all of her other family members who have served and those still serving, and to every other service member who answered the call. In preserving their stories, Barb honors the gratitude she feels for the freedoms they helped secure.
Through her quiet, tireless work, Barb ensures that history doesn’t fade, it lives on in the pages of a binder, in the memories shared, and in the hearts of those who turn the pages. Learn how you can volunteer like Barb!
Or you can apply here!