My Story: What It Is and Why We Want Your Story

A new audio series by The Record gets you to tell us a story about a memorable photo. We give you a little coaching, record your telling the story and post the finished audio, text and photos here.

Our new feature, My Story, has a simple directive: Tell a story about a personal photograph that’s important to your life.

The photo and story can be from long ago or last week, it can be about a memorable moment or event, or it can be about someone else — a relative or ancestor, a building where you worked, a place you have visited. Something that has some significance.

In order to get you to tell it well, we’ll set up an appointment to record you telling it. The night before, we’ll call you, get you to tell us a little bit about the photo, the moment in question and the point of your story. We’ll coach you a little bit. And then we’ll meet at your home or some place quiet and we’ll record you telling the story.

From there, we’ll edit the audio — (yes, we’ll remove all the '‘ums” and “you knows”) and edit it down to somewhere around three to five minutes in length. We’ll then do a transcript and send both to you for approval. When it’s all set, we’ll publish on this site the audio, text, the photo in question and a fresh photo of you.

We believe hearing you tell us the story, as if we were right there with you, brings the story to life and makes it more intimate and powerful. And, we think the stories are a great way for you to get to know neighbors you haven’t met or to learn something about those you do know.

We are seeking people throughout Hinesburg: newcomers or members of legacy families, young parents or elders, residents of the hills or valley, students or workers in town. Anyone.

If you’d like to participate, please send me an email (editor@hinesburgrecord.org) or give me a call at (802) 482-5625 and leave your name and phone number. I’ll be in touch.

In the meantime, please listen to some of the stories we’ve published already by clicking this My Story link or the My Story link at the top of the page.

Come January 2026, we hope to have enough stories to be able to publish a new story each week.

We want to thank The University of Vermont’s Center for Community News for helping us get a jump start on this project this summer: The Center covered the cost of hiring Chelsea Burton — a UVM ‘25 grad and our winter intern — and she produced several My Story posts this summer.

If any of you or your business want to support this effort, get in touch. Thanks.