DANBURY, CONN. — The annual “One Book One Community” program to encourage everyone in Danbury to read the same book will feature “The Things They Carried,” one soldier’s personal account of life during the Vietnam War.

Residents are invited to join freshmen at Western Connecticut State University and Danbury High School students as they read and study the book and engage in several special activities to complement the theme of the book. The Danbury Library has 100 copies of “The Things They Carried” available to borrow.

The highlight will be an appearance by the book’s author, Tim O’Brien, at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, in Ives Concert Hall, White Hall, on the WCSU Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury.

“The Things They Carried,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, is described as a fictional account of O’Brien’s experience in Vietnam, where he spent 13-month tour as a soldier. He was sent home in 1970 with a Purple Heart. O’Brien now lives in Texas with his family and teaches creative writing at Texas State University. WCSU will offer CEU credit for O’Brien’s lecture.

Additional “One Book” events in October include a luncheon of Vietnamese foods at the dining hall in the WCSU Midtown campus Student Center, to which the public is invited; viewings of several movies related to Vietnam and the war, with facilitated discussions; book discussions at venues around Danbury; a panel discussion featuring veterans from several wars talking about the issues they faced when they returned home; an essay contest; and a month-long effort to collect and deliver care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The program will conclude with a celebration of Veterans Day at noon on Thursday, Nov. 11 at the WCSU Midtown campus.

Also during October, collection bins will be at all of the program sites for donations of personal and snack items to be sent to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Fairfield County-based nonprofit group, “Project from the Heart,” will coordinate transport of care packages sent to individual soldiers.

Funding support for the OBOC project is provided by FRIENDS of the Danbury Library, Union Savings Bank, Savings Bank of Danbury, Ethan Allen, Danbury Cultural Commission, Bethel Cinema and NLR Inc.

For more information, go to www.onebookdanbury.org or call the WCSU Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486 or the Danbury Library Community Relations office at (203) 796-8061.

Note to media: The co-chairs of the One Book committee, Library Director Mark Hasskarl and WCSU Provost Dr. Linda Rinker, will speak at a press conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 25, in Haas Library, WCSU Midtown campus, 181 White St., Danbury. Also speaking will be Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, WCSU President James W. Schmotter, Danbury Schools Superintendent Sal Pascarella, Mary Lou Edwards and Shirley Sambrook of Project from the Heart, and Bryan Bielefeldt, a WCSU student and veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.