Phyllis Fitzgerald wants to hear your Big Red One story.

Long before becoming Mayor, Fitzgerald began work on a project to share the experiences of local Veterans that served the 1st Infantry Division and decided to make Geary County their forever home.

In anticipation of the Division’s 100th Anniversary celebrations this summer, Fitzgerald began work last year to share 100 stories.

“Back in the Fall of 2015 is when the talk really started with Fort Riley about the 100th anniversary coming up, and I thought ‘well, you know Junction City is Fort Riley’s hometown’, and there’s a lot of veterans that decided to make this their home,” said Fitzgerald. “I thought, what better way to honor veterans than to capture their stories.”

Since January 2016 Fitzgerald has been collecting stories and now has 68 toward her goal of 100.

“I have set for [this] weekend, 6 stories of veterans to get – so I’m hoping by Tuesday (February 21) to at least have 75 stories captured,” said Fitzgerald who publishes her stories with a local newspaper in addition to sharing them on her Facebook page.

Fitzgerald an avid Facebooker, receives tips on potential stories through postings on her page and just by word of mouth.

“If I know veterans that’s one way [I get stories], the second, for instance with [Retired Police] Chief Brown – he gave me that name of the fourth story that I wrote which is on Henry Martinez, they were together in the same unit here; a lot of times, it’s by word of mouth, people will share,” said Fitzgerald. “I also [will] put a note out on my Facebook just on the project that I’m working on and my need to get more stories.”

To share your story, or if you know a veteran that may be interested, contact Phyllis Fitzgerald by phone at 307-1472 or on Facebook.