By Kristen Nowak Winn

Accent Editor

LIVERPOOL TWP. — Liverpool Township residents will have a chance to make a page in history.

The township celebrates its bicentennial birthday in 2010, and to commemorate the occasion, a group of volunteers is organizing an updated history book.

The collection, which will be published by next year’s street fair in August 2009, will feature articles written by community leaders from all organizations, churches, schools, township government and, basically, whoever has a story to tell.

“It began with the Liverpool Historical Society realizing that 2010 marks the bicentennial year of Valley City’s founding,” said Kim Greico, the co-director of the Liverpool Bicentennial Committee and the publication chairwoman. “One of their ideas was that we should have one main project, and they agreed to update the history.”

The new collection starts where the first history book, “Backward Glance,” left off.

“We’re going to take the history from 1962 up as close as we can until 2010,” Greico said.

While you still might find “Backward Glance” at one of the local libraries, there are no other copies left for sale. So, instead of republishing them, the committee will copy the text into the new book.

In addition, the committee hopes to expand on the township’s historical background by asking community members to contribute any township-related records, photographs and mementos.

“What we have found that as far as Valley City history is that very little of it is written down,” said Greico, who grew up in Liverpool Township and graduated from Buckeye High School in 1985. “The people who had been the town leaders, they have things in their attics, they have things in their cupboard, they have little things here and there.”

Due to interest, the organizers also will devote a chapter of the book to military service as well as a section on farming.

“We’re also looking for what we call community characters — people who are extremely interesting,” Greico said.

Anyone with stories of Liverpool Township can share them at the street fair this weekend — and Greico will have a tape recorder in hand to capture them.

“As a girl growing up here, you’re so far removed because you’re going to school, and you’ve got these people around you whose stories are absolutely amazing,” Greico said. “It’s discovering those little treasures that’s incredible.”

The committee also encourages written pieces, and they can be dropped off at the committee’s table at the street fair Aug. 23 and 24.

Or, send them to Greico via e-mail (griecok@yahoo.com) or mail, 7044 Center Road, Valley City, 44280. You can also preorder a copy of the book for $30. Other funding for the book’s publication will come from grants and corporate sponsorships. For more information, call Greico at 330-483-6046.

Winn may be reached at 330-721-4053 or kwinn@ohio.net.