This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In collaboration with Congaree National Park and Friends of Congaree Swamp, students at Lower Richland High School in Hopkins, South Carolina, prepared stories about water as part of the region's presentation of "Water/Ways," an exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program.

Antonia Belton (00:06): Have you ever thought about how you treating the environment? This is your environment. This is a place where you have to live for many years along. Water quality is a central part of why you should keep the environment clean. Do you know what water quality is? Water quality is the condition of water, including chemical, physical, and biological characteristics. Did you know this could potentially affect your health if the water wasn't up to standard?

Video (00:28): It was burning, I could hardly breathe. My skin's all rashed up and I'm furious about it. If you want me to be happy, give me some fresh water.

Antonia Belton (00:38): I will take you to Flint, Michigan where their world flipped upside down when they had a water quality crisis in 2014. Inadequate water treatment and monitoring resulted in various water quality and health problems for Flint residents, issues that government officials chronically neglected, dismissed, and minimized.

Video (00:55): . . . leeched lead from the pipes and out the faucets. So if the waters safer, why are people still so afraid to drink it?

Video (01:02): Welcome to Flint. My name is April Hawkins, and I am a resident of Flint and we are still without clean water.

Antonia Belton (01:11): Shortly after the town begin supplying Flint river waters to residents in April 2014, residents began to complain that the water from their taps looked, smelled, and tasted foul. Officials claim that the water was clean despite protests by residents lugging jugs of discolored water.

Video (01:27): Water.

Video (01:27): What we do want?

Video (01:27): We want water.

Video (01:53): Governor Snyder's address competed with this.

Video (01:55): Flint water [inaudible 00:01:57]. Flint water-

Antonia Belton (01:59): In February of 2015, a city test revealed high lead content in the water of Flint residents' home. In April of that same year, the EPA states on and around the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality was notified that. It states the city did not have corrosion protection treatment operation at a Flint water treatment facility. In October of 2015, Snyder released an action plan, who's governor of Michigan, says the city and state will provide filters and water testing for Flint residents, among other things.

Antonia Belton (02:28): In 2019 Flint's most recent drinking water sample marked lead of four parts per billion. Well ahead of the 15 that needs action, a 90th percentile ranking accounts for those results. In other words, the federal standard complies with 90% of residents.

Video (02:43): I'm a home visitor for a program with the local school district here. I go into the homes and I work with parents and caregivers of children, from prenatal to the age of five. As residents here, we were concerned with them making that switch back in 2014-15. When I first started noticing things was going on with the water, color changes in my bathroom with the shower walls, the strong odor coming from the water, and then my hair came out.

Asset ID: 2022.15.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students from Manchester High School in Indiana worked with the North Manchester Center for History to produce this thoughtful story about how students have been affected by COVID-19.

Speaker 1 (00:16): I remember March 13th, when they announced that we were getting closed, I was kind of shocked that it would even happen. I heard stories about other schools getting closed, but I never really thought it would happen at our school specifically. And I remember being at home, doing things online and the immense struggle of it and getting through it and having to find the self-motivation to do it myself was very difficult. And I kind of learned a lot about myself during it, because if I didn't do my jobs or my schoolwork, I would fail, but it was incredibly difficult from doing that at home. So, over the quarantine and over this past year, I really had to learn how to push myself and how to be self-motivated.

Speaker 2 (01:02): I think the thing that changed the most was my attitude towards it. It became something that I had to do to something that I get to do, because this past year I was quarantined just once, so having to do that by yourself and ending junior year, last year by yourself, it's just not the same. And it made me miss the classroom environment, even if the classroom wasn't necessarily filled with my friends, it's just an environment that you have to be in to make school fun and helpful.

Speaker 3 (01:39): The day of our concert last year was when everything shut down and so that definitely had an impact. And then I think also the musical, we were like two weeks away from our opening night and it got canceled, so those were the things that just turned everything upside down for me.

Speaker 4 (01:58): We have shorter classes, longer passing periods, and we have to wear masks a lot. But for me, one of the things that as I look back, I'm like, oh yeah, I missed that, was during passing periods or even in the mornings, just being with friends and hanging out in the, there was kind of a close that was lost when we had all of the COVID precautions put into place.

Speaker 5 (02:34): I think I'll always remember how you need to be thankful for the things that you have because they get taken away so fast. Nobody saw it coming and then when it did, nobody had time to prepare for it. It was just all of a sudden it was here, there wasn't any planning or anything that you could do to prepare. And it just really made you think about the things that you used to be able to do that you couldn't now. And it makes you really be thankful for the things that you have, because you just realize how fast it can go away.

Speaker 6 (03:07): Everybody seems good on their phone. They're a bit more anti-social than they used to be. I don't like that because I like to talk to people. That's just me. That's the only thing really different I've noticed, people were just more antisocial. I didn't like it. Because we were all coming together for one goal and it didn't feel like everybody was kind of doing their own thing during the pandemic, but we all came together, goals to win football games and it was really cool.

Asset ID: 2022.14.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Twenty students from St. Joseph, Missouri, took part in educational programming surrounding the Museum on Main Street exhibition Water/Ways.

Narrator (00:02): We Are River People. Landscape is incredibly important to communities. For Saint Joseph and its surrounding areas, our rivers are a major part of our way of life. Native peoples like the Iowa and Sac and Fox living in the region when fur trader, Joseph Robidoux, settled here, shared stories of the giant catfish who swam in the Missouri River. Catfish can live over 30 years and can grow over 100 pounds. We still tell catfish stories in Saint Joseph.

Narrator (00:36): Every year, the river and its elusive giant catfish attract anglers, hoping to catch a big one. In 2020, in partnership with the Smithsonian's YES Stories video program, a group of middle school students in St. Joseph, Missouri, set out to craft a video about the waterways in and around St. Joe, The students met several times in the fall of 2019 to learn all about Saint Joseph's water stories. They went on a river cruise, fishing, toured water gardens, learned about our drinking water and more. They captured photos of their outdoor water-related adventures and production on the YES Stories video was set to begin spring of 2020.

Narrator (01:20): Then the pandemic struck. The lockdown prevented any further work from being completed on the video and it was shelved until 2021. Here's the culmination of their collaboration. Water is an important resource for our communities and we must continue to take care of this essential part of our environment. Healthy water ecology is necessary to wildlife and humanity alike. Our rivers have shaped borders, built economies, fueled ecosystems, and informed our technology throughout the years. America's longest river, the Missouri River, will travel over 2,300 miles from Montana before joining Mississippi River in Missouri creating the world's fourth longest river system on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Narrator (02:11): For thousands of years, the Missouri River has acted as the main artery for discovery, food, commerce, and transportation for millions of people on the Great Plains. In Saint Joseph, Missouri, the river served as the western edge of the United States and was a launching point for those determined to head west. Founded in 1843 by Joseph Robidoux as a fur trading post, Saint Joseph, Missouri was inhabited by merchants, fur traders, Native Americans, explorers, outlaws, and was the birthplace of the pony express.

Narrator (02:48): In 1806, Lewis and Clark explored the wild and scenic region, which is now regarded as the most important part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. To this day, you can still camp in the same places the pioneers did. About one fourth of all agricultural land in the United States gets its water from the Missouri. And the Missouri River watershed produces more than one third of the country's wheat, flax, barley, and oats. Along the Missouri River, major floods have always been a part of life.

Narrator (03:21): Along the way, they've taught us about working together as a community during times of crisis. The Missouri River gained the moniker, the Big Muddy because of the large amounts of sediment that used to run through it. Because of human interventions on our rivers, the sediment coursing through the Missouri has declined over the years.

Asset ID: 2022.13.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

In Alamance County, North Carolina, approximately 138 students in the Alamance-Burlington School System participated in the Stories: Yes student storytelling initiative in 2020. Their storytelling projects focused on local watersheds, in connection with the Museum on Main Street exhibition Water/Ways. Stephanie Brambila, Jocelyn Cruz-Cura, Abigail Durban, Jaira Gonzalez Perry interviewed Kelly Davis for this short video about Haw River Syndrome and its effects on Kelly's son, Michael. 

Speaker 1 (00:09): The city of Haw River was founded in 1745 after Adam Trollinger established a homestead on the banks of the Haw River.

Speaker 2 (00:18): An influx of Scottish, Irish, German, and English immigrants began to build farms and settlements in the late 1700s.

Speaker 3 (00:26): The underground railroad had safe houses among the harbor. Escaping slaves used the river as a landmark on their way to the north for freedom.

Speaker 4 (00:35): The growing population alongside growing industrialization and increased pollution greatly affected the river.

Speaker 1 (00:46): The Haw River acted as a landmark when naming a disease that is specific to this region.

Speaker 2 (00:52): Haw River Syndrome is a human genetic disease that affects reproductively isolated populations.

Speaker 3 (00:59): The first recorded member of the family with this disease was born in 1840 and lived in Haw River, North Carolina.

Speaker 4 (01:07): The mutation responsible for the disease is an expansion of the region on the DRPLA protein, which is on chromosome 12 and encodes to the amino acid, glutamine.

Speaker 1 (01:17): Normally the instructions for DRPLA protein consist of 10 to 20 glutamines in a row.

Speaker 2 (01:25): People with Haw River Syndrome, however, have at least 40 in a row.

Speaker 3 (01:30): We got in contact with Kelly, the mother of Michael, a 14-year-old boy who suffers from the Haw River Syndrome.

Asset ID: 2022.12.02

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students at the Environmental Science Academy at Jefferson Township High School in New Jersey worked with the Lake Hopatcong Foundation to produce this story about a historic 2019 algae bloom in the state's largest lake. This episode is PART 3 of 3.

Speaker 1 (00:01): Many communities have a Main Street. The center of town [inaudible 00:00:04] might be the busiest, oldest or most important part of that town. What if that Main Street wasn't a street at all, but a lake. Hopatcong Lake, New Jersey, the state's largest lake. For the four towns around the lake, Jefferson, Mount Arlington, Roxbury and Hopatcong, this lake is a hub for business, tourism and ecology. But in the summer of 2019, the lake was struck with a harmful algae bloom, HAB. This is a story best told while looking from three different perspectives. So this is part three of three, where we'll examine the economic aspect of the algae bloom.

Marty Kane (00:39): And so basically the lake as we know it today has been that way since the 1840s. But in its heyday if you will, Lake Hopatcong was a major Northeast resort. It had over 40 hotels and rooming houses on the shores of the lake. Two separate amusement parks on the shores of the lake. All types of activities, both day and night for people. In many ways it was a Jersey Shore before the Jersey Shore.

Speaker 1 (01:04): The lake is home to dozens of businesses that rely on the summer commerce, as people go out on the water to enjoy the summer sun. There are clubs, restaurants, marinas, yacht, clubs, fishing clubs, bars and beaches, where an estimated 500,000 people visit the lake annually.

Eric Wilsusen (01:19): Our restaurants, our marinas, gas, you name it, it's New Jersey's largest lake, so you have so many people that come to use it as a recreation source.

Marty Kane (01:31): And people come out in much greater numbers than they do at other times in the year, whether it's the lake restaurants, to rent boats, they just come into the area to make use of the lake. And literally thousands of people come here on weekends. In a particular Cove alone, you might get 400 boats in our busiest Cove.

Speaker 1 (01:53): The harmful algae bloom swept in suddenly, putting the lake under advisory and leaving many business owners in a tough spot.

Robert DeFillippo (02:00): All of our businesses suffered because the lake was virtually shut down. So all the businesses in Roxbury, which borders the lake through the landing area of our town. Those businesses and the marinas and everything associated with a business around the lake just stopped.

Lisa Palanchi (02:23): A lot of people didn't put their boats in because they were afraid of the algae bloom. Again, people wouldn't go water skiing, they weren't sailing, they weren't really doing any activities on the water. So definitely affected us. When we had to shut down, we weren't allowed to continue as normal because the state had told us that we couldn't do it.

Asset ID: 2022.11.03

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students at the Environmental Science Academy at Jefferson Township High School in New Jersey worked with the Lake Hopatcong Foundation to produce this story about a historic 2019 algae bloom in the state's largest lake. This episode is PART 2 of 3.

Speaker 1 (00:00): Many communities have a main street, the center of town that marks what might be the busiest, oldest, or most important part of that town. But what if that main street wasn't the street at all, but a lake? Welcome to Lake Hopatcong New Jersey, the state's largest lake. For the four towns around the lake, Jefferson, Mount Arlington, Roxbury, and Hopatcong this lake is a hub for business, tourism, and ecology.

Speaker 1 (00:18): The lake is home to marina's, fishing clubs, yacht clubs, sailing teams, restaurants, and many beaches with an estimated 500,000 visitors annually.

April Leaver (00:30): We have a lot of activities in the summer for children and families and even an adult social. We have day at the races where kids do all sorts of races to compete for little prizes. We have opening day and closing day picnics, which usually garner a lot of members.

Greg Gorman (00:53): We have fun. We hike. We fish. We do bird watching. Just everything that you can do on Lake Hopatcong our club members do. It's a fantastic place to bring children to get their first introduction to nature. And people like me they're a little old and sedentary, and we just love going to the restaurants and watching the water skiers go by.

Speaker 1 (01:20): But in the summer of 2019, the lake was struck with a harmful algae bloom known as a HAB. This is a story best told while looking from three different perspectives. So this is part two of the three where we'll examine the social aspect of the algae bloom.

Michael Stanzilis (01:33): Obviously our beach is a great place where residents come, they can bring their children here to go swimming. They weren't able to do that.

Eric Wilsusen (01:41): People didn't really understand what a harmful algae bloom was. And people were afraid to go in the water. They weren't boating.

Speaker 1 (01:50): Though many clubs were affected by the HAB, Eddie Mackin from the Lake Hopatcong Knee-Deep Fishing Club explained that they were able to continue their activities as normal all throughout the bloom.

Speaker 1 (01:59): The algae bloom kept residents away from the water as a fear of it began to permeate the towns.

Asset ID: 2022.11.02

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students at the Environmental Science Academy at Jefferson Township High School in New Jersey worked with the Lake Hopatcong Foundation to produce this story about a historic 2019 algae bloom in the state's largest lake. This episode is PART 1 of 3.

Speaker 1 (00:00): Many communities have a main street, the center of town that marks what might be the busiest, oldest or most important part of that town. But what if that main street wasn't a street at all, but a lake? Welcome to Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, the state's largest lake. For the four towns around the lake, Jefferson, Mount Arlington, Roxbury and Hopatcong, this lake is the hub for business, tourism and ecology. But in the summer of 2019, the lake was struck with a harmful algae bloom known as a HAB. This is a story best told while looking from three different perspectives. This is part one of three where we'll examine the environmental aspect of the algae bloom.

Fred Lubnow (00:38): In a freshwater system most of your HABs, most of your harmful algal blooms are cyanobacteria, which are technically bacteria that pretend to be plants. They're bacteria that photosynthesize. We call them algae, but technically they're cyanobacteria.

Speaker 1 (00:55): HABs grew across the entirety of Lake Hopatcong, making the water in some coves look like a goopy pea soup.

Robert DeFillippo (01:01): What happened this time was sort of a, no pun intended, but sort of the perfect storm. We had a lot of rain. Phosphates from lawns and fertilizers washed into the lake as it always does, and then it was very warm. All of those contributed to the algae bloom.

Fred Lubnow (01:25): Now, typically to get a really nasty HAB bloom, there are three things that the cyanobacteria like. First, they like warmer temperatures. We've seen that like on Lake Hopatcong we have a statistically significant increase in the surface water temperatures in the summer months. Now, the thing about cyanobacteria is they can fix their own nitrogen from the atmosphere. So unlike other algae that need a lot of nitrogen, they don't need a lot. They can pull it from the atmosphere, but to do that, they need a lot of phosphorus, and that's why when you see more phosphorus, you'll see more of the cyanobacteria.

Speaker 1 (02:00): Phosphorus can be found mostly in fertilizer or in fecal waste.

Ron Smith (02:06): It starts out when they fertilize their lawns, especially the people on the lakefront. There's phosphate in the fertilizer. Then it rains and that washes into the lake. Also, even back from the lake across when people fertilize their lawns, it gets into the storm sewers. All those storm sewers enter into the lake.

Speaker 1 (02:25): Once the algae is given the proper conditions to grow, it can get out of control, causing a myriad of issues.

Katrina Angarone (02:31): As I said before, a cell will produce toxins at any time, and the toxins are associated with even more serious health effects. They're not just an inconvenience. They can be quite dangerous, particularly for children who are more prone to accidentally ingesting water when swimming and playing.

Asset ID: 2022.11.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students working with Girls, Inc. of Hamblen County, Morristown, Tennessee, helped produce this story about urban renewal and downtown planning in mid-century Morristown, Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (00:00): Morristown, Tennessee is located in the Northeastern corner of our state. With a population of almost 30,000, the town has always been a commercial hub for the Appalachian region. If you visit downtown Morristown, you may notice something unique, overhead sidewalks. We have so many questions, when were these built but, more importantly, why?

Jim Claborn (00:28): 1960s, downtown Morristown was really crowded, especially on Saturdays. People came from White Pine, and Bean Station, and Russellville, and Whitesburg, they all came to together in the town. It was normally really, really crowded on nights and on weekends. The early stores in Morristown were formed up on the hill, near Rose Center, right down where the library is, because that Turkey Creek, sometimes it would flood. Even when I was a teenager, like you all, it flooded one time and the water came up, in some of the buildings downtown, up to my chin.

Jim Claborn (01:09): And I remember going through town and they were having sales because everything in the store had been soaked. And you could buy a pair of pants or a shirt for 10 cents. They were just trying to get rid of it. Most everybody came to downtown to do their shopping. Stores would stay open late at night and all the store windows would be all decorated for holidays, and so the downtown part was just a big shopping center. And then here comes Radio Center and they take away some of that business. And then other shopping centers like Crescent Center, and then another one, we call it the Sky City Shopping Center, and these shopping centers were stealing away the business.

Speaker 3 (01:58): To encourage economic development in and around downtown, Morristown followed other cities with its own urban renewal program. In the 1960s, this federal program included their recreation of the downtown area in large part by Morristown Housing Authority.

Jim Claborn (02:18): Urban renewal. We had down where Morris Boulevard is, the street that Girls Club's on, we had some real bad structures, they were in bad condition, and some stores where the parking lot is in Morristown now that were in bad condition. So they took those houses and some of the stores down to make the town more attractive. We built new homes for folks that really couldn't afford to buy a house and we tore down a lot of stuff that just looked unappealing. You build a project, you have to tell the people that live in the houses around here, they have to pay more taxes, and they had to convince everybody that it was a good idea to keep people wanting to come to downtown. So there was some opposition, yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:21): Morristown's overhead sidewalks or Sky Mall became part of the urban renewal of the downtown area. The Sky Mall was designed by architect [inaudible 00:03:35], who got the idea from an older business district in Chester, England.

Asset ID: 2022.10.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Students in Campbell County, Tennessee, worked with the Campbell County Historical Society in Lafollette to produce this story about education and learning in the past compared to classrooms today.

Narrator (00:20): Our stories surround us in many forms. We find them in well-crafted books about long-kept family secrets. In stories of hidden heritage, hard times, good times, forgotten peoples, and life threatening situations. Our stories are written within the margins of small diaries and daily journals. They are found in photo collections and manuscripts, reflecting the routine and the special experiences of life in Appalachia. Composers tell our stories through the sounds of their music and the words of their lyrics. Our stories walk the stage in original plays by local playwrights. They live on painted walls and are embroidered into handmade quilts. The bits and pieces of our stories are discovered in yellow newspapers and among treasured letters, home. There are so many ways to learn our stories, but best of all, our stories are carried in the memories of our people linked to the past and intertwined with the present, with hints and lessons for our future stories. By looking at what was and what is, we can plan for our communities of tomorrow in the place we call home.

Narrator (01:43): So we listen, we learn, and we prepare ourselves to live the best stories we can. When we set out to learn about and compare educational systems of yesteryear to our own experiences today, we discovered that reading, writing, and arithmetic are only parts of schooling in an Appalachian rural community. They are important, but back in the day, an 80-year-old minister learned that you can talk to your tomatoes, a teacher learned that relatives are neighbors and neighbors are relatives, a judge learned that the electric pedal is fiction, and a mayor learned that a stubborn 600 pound farm animal can be a good teacher. Even borrowing a hen's egg to swap for a bag of candy and daydreaming are good tools for working out the challenges of growing up.

Donnie Poston (02:38): All children come with different personalities and one of the things I've learned so much, over the years, the training that I used to seek out would be like, as far as a graduate work and those types of, what do my kids need more from me? Not so much that I've got a degree at the end of my name with adding money. What can... What additional training do I need to help meet some of those personality issues, some of those character things that people would consider flaws? What can I be to them, to help them to absolutely have a good experience? You know, the least restricted environment that they have does not come easy. And so it takes a lot of preparation as an educator, as a parent, as just a friend.

Jordan Heatherly (03:32): With us also with learning disabilities, do you think it is easier without them to teach them or do you think it's just pretty much the same and you just kind of have to handle it a little bit different?

Jordan Heatherly (03:32): With us also with learning disabilities, do you think it is easier without them to teach them or do you think it's just pretty much the same and you just kind of have to handle it a little bit different?

Asset ID: 2022.09.01

Find a complete transcript: www.museumonmainstreet.org

In 2021, a coalition of national museum and library associations awarded the Peale (Baltimore, Maryland) a Communities for Immunity grant. The goal of the project is for trusted, local institutions to engage their communities in order to boost COVID-19 vaccine confidence. Since being awarded the grant, we've been gathering stories from people about their experiences with COVID and getting the vaccine. Listen to this medley of young Baltimore voices.

Speaker 1: We hit lockdown. And during that time I felt very paranoid to go outside.

Speaker 2: My favorite store, shut down. I was mad.

Speaker 3: I played hockey, so we don't have no games, no more. I miss game with my teammates and stuff like that.

Speaker 4: I basically feel like I got robbed for my last year. Cause we ain't really go to school that much.

Speaker 5: It's the same feeling. We've all experienced something. And I think the lesson here really is that you really don't know what you have until it's gone.

Speaker 1: When the vaccine was developed, it was just a lot of misinformation on the internet and social media. But as time went on, I decided to take matters into my own hands and you know, do my own research. And I got the vaccine, and you know, the anxiety just leading up to getting the vaccine was worse to actually getting the vaccine. It was just like a little pinch that I got on my shoulder.

Speaker 4: First shot, my arm was a little sore. I ain't gonna lie. My arm was sore.

Speaker 2: I was so nervous. But other than that, I had to do that today. It's cool. I'm here.

Speaker 1: I realized that this vaccine is the opportunity for us to really get normalcy back into our lives and just the way to keep everyone safe.

Learn more about the Communities for Immunity project on the Peale's website: ThePeale.org. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this recording do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. If you have any question about whether your product requires this statement, please contact the Office of Communications at 202-653-4757.