Eldridge Public Library presents special screening of “Letters Home to Hero Street” on April 15

Actor Josh Wielenga delivers a telegram to Frank's family in "Letters Home to Hero Street".

The Eldridge Public Library will screen Letters Home to Hero Street, the new documentary produced by WQPT-PBS and Fourth Wall Films, on Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 p.m.  A Q&A with the film's producers and others will follow the film presentation. 

Letters Home to Hero Street focuses on a young Mexican-American veteran's personal view of World War II as told through the letters sent home to his family in Silvis, Illinois.  He becomes one of eight veterans of WWII and the Korean War killed in combat from the same block-and-a half-long neighborhood now called Hero Street, USA.

Actor Eric Juarez portrays P.F.C. Frank Sandoval, who entered the U.S. Army on October 3, 1942.  He served in North Burma with Co. C 209 Engineer Combat Battalion.  Frank was listed as "killed in action" on June 26, 1944.

"The Hero Street story is every bit as fascinating and relevant as other more well-known war stories. Letters Home will deliver a portion of this Mexican-American story through the letters of Frank Sandoval," said director Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.

“Frank was not chosen because he is more important than the other seven heroes, nor more important than others who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice,” said producer Lora Adams of WQPT. “In Letters Home to Hero Street, Frank stands in for the seven and for all who have served."

The Letters Home to Hero Street screening and Q&A will take place on Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at the Eldridge Public Library, 200 North 6^th Avenue, Eldridge, Iowa.  The event is sponsored by Friends of the Eldridge Public Library and is free to the public.

Letters Home to Hero Street is available on DVD at Amazon.com, and in the Quad Cities at The Book Rack, The Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau, and at Porkie’s Restaurant on the corner of Hero Street in Silvis, Illinois. 

The documentary project was awarded a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

The Rundles own Fourth Wall Films, an independent film and video production company formerly of Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.