TEXAS — In July, thousands of letters and donations were mailed to the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, eventually birthing the Condolence Letter Project.
“It’s deeply emotional,” said Schreiner University’s library manager, Sarah Sides. “I don’t think I’ve been able to process all of it.”
As millions of dollars in donations poured into Kerr County after the Fourth of July flooding, so did these letters.
“A lot of the letters children wrote, and then they included these little trinkets to give out,” said Sides.
Sides was asked if the library would be interested in housing the growing number of heartfelt notes.
“I was going kind of through my own trauma from the flood,” said Sides. “And I was like, great, a project.”
As special collections coordinator, Sides agreed to take the notes, and the Condolence Letter Project was born.
“We were told it was about a thousand letters,” Sides said. “Thin pieces of paper stacked together is a lot. And it was just an outpouring of condolences from all over the nation.”
As it turns out, there were over 2,000 letters, some reaching Texas from the U.K. and Canada. Library interns are going through each letter one by one.
“People handwriting letters, that’s kind of a rare thing nowadays,” said library intern Mia Ravera.
Letters came in from about 800 cities across the country. Library intern Kacey Zaiontz said the project team has a map with pins representing all those places.
From kids’ drawings to small notes, these handwritten letters will be preserved for years to come.
“Just beautiful to see people from all different kinds of backgrounds feeling that this was so important that they had to write a letter,” Sides said. “They didn’t send an email.”
Part one of the project, archiving the physical letters, is complete. Part two is to digitize. In the future, researchers will be able to access everything, thanks to a $15,000 grant.
“Part of our Hill Country Collection,” Sides said. “For research purposes, we do want to have the physical and the digital. Because if anything were to happen, we’d still have at least the digital files.”
It took well over 100 hours to build this archive from scratch, recording history as it unfolds.
“I never knew how many people would care about little ol’ Kerrville,” Zaiontz said. “And sending their condolences. And their wishes and their prayers for us. It’s just so meaningful.”
Sides said this Condolence Letter Project is special. It’s helping the team push through during a dark time in the Hill Country.
“Despite a horrific tragedy, the world does come together,” Sides said.