STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The Monroe County Historical Association on Main Street in Stroudsburg is filled with all kinds of historical keepsakes.
Directors are now asking you to become a citizen historian and contribute to a new collection centered on the coronavirus pandemic.
"We have a lot of data and hard numbers about the coronavirus, but what we don't necessarily have are the stories that reflect what people are experiencing," said Amy Leiser, Monroe County Historical Association.
"Collecting in the Time of COVID-19" is the official name of the collection.
You're being asked to donate things like unused homemade masks, photos of empty grocery store shelves, modified restaurant menus, and more.
"We've been getting lots great donations from area businesses. Lots of breweries and distilleries are now making hand sanitizer, and they gave us empty bottles of their hand sanitizer for the museum collection. ESU is working on medical equipment with 3-D printing. They've donated to us, too. It's really wonderful," said Leiser.
Directors say they have so much data from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic but lack personal stories of what people went through.
"That's why we thought we should be acting now to save this history for when future researchers are looking back in 2020 and get a better feel to what life was like here in Monroe County," said Leiser.
Photos can be emailed to the Monroe County Historical Association now. Directors are asking you to hold onto physical objects until the museum can reopen.