This story about Mary Keuchenmeister of Andover is part of a national online collection of Stories from the Encore Movement. It is reprinted with permission from Encore.org, a nonprofit building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world.

“I am challenged by those I interview to expand my thinking, to question, to explore.”

I founded the Story Preservation Initiative (SPI) in 2010. It started simply as an outgrowth of my irrepressible interest in people’s life stories.

That interest has always been a large part of who I am, going back to my twenties, when I would call people up on the phone and ask, “Can I meet you?” More times than not, the answer was yes. Some of my earliest interviews: an Olympic biathlete; a Shaker basket maker; a group of environmentalists who re-nested sea turtle eggs. There were few stones left unturned.

Now a 501(c)(3) public charity, SPI audio records the oral histories of those of high achievement in the arts, sciences, and humanities for use as an educational resource. Our collection is archived in the Library of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and in libraries throughout the country.

In 2014, Story Preservation created our Learning Lab project, for which we combine our primary source audio with teacher-vetted project-based lesson plans. And we bring this resource directly into the classroom. Primary source material + project-based lesson plans = BIG (fun) Learning!

Monadnock Regional Middle-High School in New Hampshire is a Learning Lab school. One particular class was introduced to audio of noted ornithologist and birdsong expert Donald Kroodsma. The audio, along with more than 100 images of birds, served as the engagement piece for this term-long pilot project.

Bird feeders were set up in the school courtyard. The students’ assignment was to keep a nature journal, in which they drew and identified the birds that they saw and engaged in reflective writing. Their observations were compiled and sent to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Project FeederWatch Program.

The learning that took place throughout the term was broad and deep, ranging from writing and drawing to scientific observation, as well as research and interviewing skills. Perhaps the “pièce de resistance,” the students designed a bird sanctuary and wrote a proposal to have it built, and it was unanimously approved by the school board.

As one student put it: “The SPI Learning Lab Project was memorable because I was able to explore nature, physically and mentally. I loved how it was hands-on because I got to do all of the filling of bird feeders, making blueprints, and just being able to be with the birds.”

Younger people bring fresh ideas and energy to their work, but many times they also bring the distractions of home and other commitments to the workplace. Older workers focus, focus, focus … they bring passion, enthusiasm, and a tirelessness and singleness of purpose to the workplace.

[In an e-mail to the Beacon, Mary adds that Andover Elementary/Middle School also participates in the SPI Learning Lab Project.]

For more information about SPI, visit StoryPreservation.wordpress.com.

Are you 50+ and giving back to your community? Share your “encore” story at Encore.org/share-encore-story-2.