Check out the site (link below) for a good project to take on in your communities. As the mother of a Boy Scout who did a similar type archive for his Eagle Scout project, I see a great opportunity for youth to become involved in this. Of course, it is the veterans' stories that fill the bill.
Motivated by the urgent need to collect the stories and experiences of war veterans while they are still among us, the U.S. Congress created the Veterans History Project in October 2000. The legislation calls upon the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to collect and preserve audio- and video-taped oral histories, along with documents such as letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and home movies, of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them during World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Persian Gulf War.
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/