8th grader to publish veterans' memories

Columbia Falls Junior High student Kaliann Douglas is raising money to print a book about local veterans’ memories.

Douglas, an eighth-grader, will give copies of “Columbia Falls Veterans Favorite Childhood Memories” to the junior high, the Montana Veterans Home, the ImagineIf Library, and one to herself.

Douglas, a volleyball player and bookworm, is doing all the work herself including interviewing the veterans, taking their photo and designing the book. The project is for her advanced studies class.

The project has pushed her to make relationships with the veterans and she even plans to volunteer at the home, she said. She credits Virginia Becker, one of the veterans, with inspiring her to volunteer.

“I like visiting with them,” Douglas said. She’s always wanted to do something to show respect for the veterans. She’s thinking about going into the U.S. Navy when she’s older.

“Sometimes I talk to them about their time in the Army and the Navy, but I’m mostly doing it about the childhood memories because I want to prove something that they don’t just have war memories, that they also had a childhood, too, that is just as important,” Douglas said.

She said she can relate to the veterans’ childhoods because of her simple lifestyle. She lives with her grandparents Cindy and Melvin Clark in the woods by a river. They hunt and fish, use a wood stove and don’t have much electricity. Sharing these experiences with the veterans has helped her have more natural conversations during her project.

“I don’t feel as uncomfortable,” Douglas said.

She is over halfway to her goal of $48. She will use an online self-publishing company to design and print the paperback book in color.

She hopes to reach her goal by the end of March.

Douglas has a GoFundMe account and also has a collection box in the junior high office.