Mount Prospect collecting pandemic memories for future generations

The Mount Prospect Historical Society, in cooperation with the Mount Prospect Public Library, is launching a drive to collect Pandemic 2020 memories from Mount Prospect residents and business people so that this unique and disturbing time is never forgotten.

"We are hoping to record today's events and people's impressions of this experience for the future and to provide current residents with context in the days and years to come as memories inevitably fade," said Deb Rittle, Mount Prospect Historical Society president. "Our motto at the society is 'Keeping Hometown Memories Alive' and that is what we are endeavoring to do."

"We cannot get the full picture of any momentous event and understand how it affects local people unless we reach out and ask for residents' personal impressions, experiences and feelings," added Anne Shaughnessy, local history librarian for the library. "We do not want to just sit back and count on the media to do it for us. They may not capture the full picture."

The society and library are asking residents and others affiliated with Mount Prospect to share photos and videos with them and to write essays, impressions and even poems to help others put this experience into a larger context, and provide those who come after us with a snapshot of what life has been like during this COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to get things started, the Mount Prospect Historical Society board of directors has come up with some possible essay topics, but they are just meant as a prompt. Any local COVID-19-related topic is welcome.

Here are the society's suggestions to get you thinking:

• How have you used your computer at home to work, meet, game and socialize? Can you imagine how you would cope without that technology?

• Imagine how life now looks from the point of view of your dog or cat.

• Relate what it is like to go to the grocery store these days.

• Are you donning a mask? When? Where? Why or why not?

• What has been your experience as a 2020 high school, college or graduate school graduate?

• Are you planting a vegetable garden for the first time? Why?

• How are the clubs and organizations (of which you are a part) coping with the loss of revenue and fun?

"We plan to collect and archive these memories and moments in Mount Prospect history throughout the pandemic and will post many of them as we go along. In fact, we hope to feature one submission on our website and Facebook page each month and will award the chosen contribution with a small local gift certificate," Rittle said.

"Later, our goal is to compile the submissions into a publication, program or video, depending on what we collect," Shaughnessy said.

Visit mtphist.org for information and to sign the necessary release form to allow the partnership to use your contributions. Information about how to submit items can also be found on the website.

The Mount Prospect Historical Society is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that is committed to preserving the history of Mount Prospect, through artifacts, photographs and both oral and written memories of current and former residents and business people. On its campus in the heart of the village, the society maintains the 1906 Dietrich Friedrichs house museum carriage house, the ADA-accessible Dolores Haugh Education Center and the 1896 one-room Central School.

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