National History Day

John Ohlson and Joan Liffring both of West Sacramento were part of an award winning 2007 National History Day project researched and developed by three high school students on the "The Influenza of 1918." Ashleen Kishore, Khanh Nguyen and Nazeela Sabir of Valley High School earned second place in the Senior Group Exhibit category (9th - 12th grade) at the National History Day Competition this past June at the University of Maryland. Earlier this year they won first place in the History Day Sacramento competition and then won first place in the state finals held in Long Beach in April.

History Day in California is a statewide program sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation and the California Department of Education in conjuction with National History Day. Now in its 24th year, History Day is a history-based learning experience for students from 4th-12th grades. The theme for this year was Triumph and Tragedy in History and the students created a comprehensive exhibit of photographs and informational material, an eighty page bibliography and a DVD which included interviews with both Ohlson and Liffring discussing what they knew about the flu epidemic as told to them by their families. Mrs. Liffring stated "I wasn't alive when the influenza took place but when my Dad was stationed in the war in France, his mother died of the influenza. She lived in Belle Plain, Iowa and was 54 years old when she got the influenza and passed away. She was a sturdy woman who lived in a rural area on an apple farm with her nine children. No one in the community got the influenza but her. It wasn't an epidemic. She wasn't traveling. She was staying at home caring for her children and the farm. How did she get it?" Only a few people were included in the DVD and both Ohlson and Liffring are shown.

John Ohlson stated "I was three years old and my family had just moved from New England to Chicago. My father was a minister on the Westside and he'd visit twelve to fifteen families in the morning and twelve to fifteen families in the afternoon. These were families who wanted my father to visit them during the epidemic. My father was concerned about getting the influenza and asked his doctor what should he should do to prevent getting the illness. His doctor told him to wash his hands thoroughly as preventive medicine."

The exhibit is on display at the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society’s Museum of Medical History is located at 5380 Elvas Avenue, Sacramento. The Society's telephone number is 916.452.2671 or 456--3152. Their website is www.ssvms.org/museum.asp.