"I grabbed him by his leather coat and said, 'You're not leaving here without my phone number," said Cheryl Bonell, now 35.

Stories of first love like the Bonell's are joining a collection of more than 14,000 recorded conversations among people nationwide in StoryCorps, an oral history project, according to a StoryCorps news release.,”Cheryl Bonell said it was love at first sight when she first met her husband Jeff at a club on her 22nd birthday.

"I grabbed him by his leather coat and said, 'You're not leaving here without my phone number," said Cheryl Bonell, now 35.

Stories of first love like the Bonell's are joining a collection of more than 14,000 recorded conversations among people nationwide in StoryCorps, an oral history project, according to a StoryCorps news release. Recordings will be stored at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the release said.

StoryCorps, which began in New York City's Grand Central Terminal in 2003, opened a recording studio at the Milwaukee Public Library's Oriental Room in January, said Sandy Rusch Walton, spokeswoman of the Milwaukee Public Library. People here have contributed more than 400 stories to the project, she said.

For 40 minutes, at least two people have a conversation facilitated by a StoryCorps staff member. The types of stories run the gamut from the personal to the historical, said facilitator Erik Schoster.

People who come in to the StoryCorps booth are also as diverse as their stories—World War II veterans, mothers and daughters and people who barely know each other have had their conversations recorded, Schoster said.

Even Marquette students have told their stories after an October university news briefs e-mail informed students of StoryCorps at the library. The youngest participant in StoryCorps has been about 10 years old and the oldest was 102, Schoster said.

He said all participants, even the youngest ones, have had life stories to tell. And 40 minutes often is too short of a time to cover one's life history.

Though the interview is being recorded, facilitators hope to make the microphones fade into the background, said Becky Homann, a StoryCorps facilitator and College of Arts & Sciences junior .

"The huge goal of StoryCorps is to make it like a conversation," Homann said.

During Saturday's interview with Cheryl and Jeff Bonell, Homann hardly spoke, only interjecting when there was a lull in the conversation.

"When you start talking, it didn't even cross my mind it would be recorded," Cheryl Bonell said.

With the permission of participants following the interview, StoryCorps will preserve the recordings, Homann said.

Clips of conversations held at the Milwaukee Public Library air Fridays on Milwaukee Public Radio. "Lake Effect," a program on WUWM-FM, typically airs three-minute stories from StoryCorps interviews, said Mitch Teich, executive producer of the show.

"They probably wouldn't have come here if not for a tie-in to a local public radio station," Teich said. "I think that was a key component of why the StoryCorps booth is in Milwaukee."

Some participants might not realize their conversation could be aired. But Teich said their stories make for good radio. He said he expects segments to air at least through January.

Some stories from Milwaukee have aired on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

Conversations from the Milwaukee StoryCorps booth have been collected with stories from 78 towns and 46 states on the project's mobile tour that began in 2005, Rusch Walton said. One reason StoryCorps chose to put a permanent booth location in Milwaukee was after a successful Milwaukee stop on the mobile tour in 2005, she said.

After additional funding from the StoryCorps office was secured after an initial six month run, the Milwaukee project was extended to a full year this summer. Between now and Jan. 24, 2008, there could be at least an additional 100 recording sessions, Rusch Walton said.

"We want to get as many as we can," Schoster said. "We want to keep the booth full."

“