‘Enduring Spirits’ is enduring project

Five years ago, the faces and stories of 10 of Healdsburg’s
pioneers were immortalized in stirring photographs and simple, yet
striking stories captured by two women in Healdsburg who were
intrigued by the rich history of their lives.
The Enduring Spirits project first debuted five years ago this
Saturday, but the images look much different today than they did at
Hotel Healdsburg’s Carriage House on March 12, 2006, when all 10
elders gathered for the unveiling of the exhibit.
Recently, it came to the attention of project founder Gina Riner
that many of the photographs had been damaged by moisture from
storage. When she retrieved them to put them on display during
January’s Winter Wineland, Riner was shocked by their tattered
appearance.
“It was astonishing,” she said. “I thought maybe I shouldn’t
even put them up.”
A conversation with Will Seppi, owner of Costeaux French Bakery,
led to a fundraising project the two have launched to try to raise
money to revive the pieces.
“So much work went in to getting them done and I personally
think they are fantastic and tell a great story,” Seppi said.
Seppi offered to display the photos in the bakery during Barrel
Tasting weekend and for a short time thereafter to raise awareness
of the project once again and hopefully bring in enough money to
refurbish the pieces.
“It’s a great way to share Healdsburg’s history,” Seppi said.
“They will be on display here for two months and hopefully we will
have raised the dollars to get them refurbished.”
The two would like to get the set of photographs reprinted and
mounted in museum quality and then find a permanent home for the
exhibit.
Riner, who has become very close with the men and women she
interviewed for the project, said over the past five years the
exhibit wasn’t cared for the way it should have been, but that can
be remedied now.
“When you’re doing something for the love of it, we didn’t quite
know what we were doing,” she said.
Riner and photographer Vivienne Sosnowski set out to capture a
slice of history and the importance of what they were doing at the
time didn’t immediately sink in.
“Some say the project lengthened the lives of the people, it
gave them the respect they deserved,” Riner said.
Riner has many stories of the impact the historical project has
had on the younger generations of Healdsburg residents as well.
“So many amazing things have happened with this,” she said.
“It’s been a real magnet for creating and sustaining
community.”
Riner met Sosnowski, a retired newspaper editorial director at a
party in 2004 and a friendship began that would inspire the
re-telling of Healdsburg’s own history — the “slice of small-town
life and the values of simple living,” as Riner called it.
Five years later and five of the original 10 “Enduring Spirits”
have passed away. All hovering around 100 years of age now, a few
of them still get around and one particularly active member, Walter
Murray, still keeps bees and lives in the house he helped build as
a young child more than 90 years ago.
Along with Murray, age 98, Evelyn Iversen, 101, Lou Foppiano,
100, Rev. Maurice Wilcox, 99 and George Greeott, 101 are living
members of the Enduring Spirits project.
C.H. “Barney” Barnard, Angelo “Kelly” Micheli, Rose Ferrari
Demostene Benson, Eugene Cuneo, and Elsie Nardi Passalacqua have
all passed.
Riner has what she calls a “new crop” of elders that she’d like
to interview and complete a second round of Enduring Spirits.
“Art is a way to tell a story that connects us to our past,”
Riner said. “These are our hometown heros. They worked hard, raised
families and gave back to the community. These people are beacons
for us.”
Anyone interested in donating to help pay to renew the project
may make a check to The Healdsburg Heritage Project, P.O. Box 1183,
Healdsburg, CA, 95448 or can email Riner directly for more
information at gi*****@co*****.net.
Kerrie Lindecker can be reached at ke****@so********.com.