Casselton's Heritage Center Board Members Becky Kingsley and Stacey Link

In this episode of Afternoons Live with Tyler Axness, Becky Kingsley and Stacey Link from the Casselton Heritage Center discuss their community-driven efforts to preserve local history through the upcoming 'Collecting Casselton' event on March 28th. The event invites residents to bring personal collections—photos, documents, memorabilia, letters, and even stories—to two locations: 4E Winery and Martin's Lutheran Church. The hosts emphasize the importance of preserving not just prominent historical figures like Casselton’s five governors, but also the everyday lives of ordinary residents, from farm life to school memories. The Heritage Center, housed in the historic Stone Church, works to digitize and archive these materials, leveraging a partnership with NDSU Public History and Community Engagement to create a digital platform that makes local history accessible beyond the physical space. The episode highlights emotional connections to personal artifacts, such as love letters and family albums, and underscores the urgency of capturing oral histories before they're lost with aging community members. The team also celebrates recent achievements, including the digitization of Casselton newspapers and a community-funded scanning project. Key takeaways include the value of everyday history, the power of personal stories in building community identity, and the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer. The episode encourages people of all ages to contribute, emphasizing that current events—like youth sports—are part of the ongoing historical narrative. The hosts stress that even items with unknown significance can hold deep value, and that the Heritage Center welcomes all contributions, no matter how small. The overall tone is warm, inspiring, and community-focused, celebrating local pride and collective memory.