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Bucknell Humanities Center Joins Milton Public Library on COVID History Program

Take-home Work Kits Available Starting May 22, to be Compiled into a Community-Authored Historical Archive Book

LEWISBURG, Pa. — The Bucknell Humanities Center (BHC) is partnering with the Milton Public Library (MPL) this summer to sponsor the project Living History: Community Perspective and Observations during COVID, with its public kickoff on Saturday, May 22, at 11 a.m. at the library, 541 Broadway St. The project invites children, young adults and their families to reflect on their experiences of COVID-19 by completing take-home work kits that will eventually be compiled into a community-authored archival book.

Starting Saturday, families can pick up Living History & Summer Reading Home Bags. The bag of supplies is funded by the BHC and holds the tools for families to color, write and/or draw their own lived experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Families can use prompt questions found on the postcard in the bag as a starter conversation for documenting their story.

The partnership with the Milton Public Library is the first Public Humanities Initiative for the BHC. It was conceived and designed by Kathi Venios, administrative assistant for the BHC, who worked in close collaboration with Professor Claire Campbell, history, and BHC director and Professor Maria Antonaccio, religious studies.

“This community-wide project, Living History, aligns with the library’s mission for community programming and outreach, and spotlights the value of its resources for local history,” says Venios. “It will introduce kids, pre-teens, teens and adults to the ideas of community memory, local history, archives and records, and provides an opportunity for everyone to express their lived experiences in a creative and inclusive way.”

Venios has been developing the project over the past several months. Participants are asked to submit their Living History contribution to MPL by Friday, July 16. All submissions will be scanned for the purpose of printing the archival book, “Living History: Community Perspective and Observations During COVID,” which will be donated to MPL as the first community-authored archive in recent times.

“I’ve reached out to the Montgomery House Library and Professor Campbell reached out to Buffalo Valley Recreation Authority to expand to other local regions,” Venios says. “Each of these entities have agreed to partner with MPL and ask families from the summer lunch program and summer day camps to color, write and/or draw their living history story and submit it to MPL.”

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CONTACTS: Kathi Venios, 570-577-1314, kathi.venios@bucknell.edu; Claire Campbell, 570-577-1364, claire.campbell@bucknell.edu; Mike Ferlazzo, 570-577-3212, 570-286-6266 (c),
mike.ferlazzo@bucknell.edu

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