The Dunwoody Preservation Trust is calling for residents to send in photos and other mementos to remember the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Preservation Trust — an organization dedicated to saving and sharing Dunwoody’s history — joins the likes of the Atlanta History Center, which launched the “Corona Collective” last year as a way to preserve history of the pandemic for future generations.
“In Dunwoody, we don’t know much about what happened 100 years ago with the Spanish Flu,” said Suzanne Huff, executive director and chief operating officer of the Dunwoody Preservation Trust. “We don’t know much about anything that happened here, if anything did.”
Huff said the idea originally started last April, but lost a little bit of steam over the summer before she picked it back up late last year. Since October, she said she’s received about 23 mementos, including photos and stories sharing what it’s been like for residents during the pandemic.
Huff said the trust has received mostly photos and stories at this point. Everything sent in so far can be viewed on the Dunwoody Preservation Trust’s website. Photos include masks hanging from key rings, Zoom calls between friends, a socially distanced football game, and empty grocery store shelves.
Huff said the trust would be interested in receiving physical artifacts as well, such as masks, hand sanitizers, or journals from the early days of the pandemic.
“I sew, so I made all my face masks,” Huff said. “So I would keep some of those in our collection, as well as the generic ones.”
The items can be viewed online, but Huff said she would be interested in starting a physical exhibit post-pandemic. The Dunwoody Preservation Trust operates out of the Donaldson-Bannister Farm at 4831 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, and Huff said any exhibit would most likely take place there.
Anyone interested in submitting mementos for the collection can send an email to dunwoodypreservationtrust@gmail.com.