I just read the news that the Metropolitan Museum in New York reopened after being closed for five months. Not only are they respecting the guidelines for reopening, but they are also instituting strict measures on their own. Instead of 5000 visitors per hour, the limit will be 2000. That sounds like a lot except it is such an immense building that it can handle visitors in its large exhibition halls and rooms.
It got us thinking about other favorite institutions, particularly smaller nonprofit organizations that rely on visitors and or members to survive. The challenges are significant, and many will not survive. However, we discovered some that are finding solutions to making it work in this age of post Corona virus. In particular, Lucy shares a delightful story about her favorite local institution:
During the now ancient pre-Covid era, I would haunt my local library, usually going once a week to select a potpourri of books from cooking, to novels to memoirs and occasionally a lucky find artfully displayed near the front counter.
My library, a stately brick building, was originally envisioned in 1912 and finally completed in 1935. I live in a small town and it is located on the green and is a core part of our lives from story hour and children’s art shows to lectures and classes on every hobby or topic you could imagine. Each season and each holiday, it gifts the town with magical decorations. And then it was no more. Just silence. Doors locked.
In late March, I had to bend to the will of the virus and adapt. I loaded a bunch of books onto my iPad and because I was not willing to pay to read, spoiled by my library routine, it was mostly not a very good selection each week. But my computer kept applauding me for the number of books I had read. Nobody had cared about that since I was a child.
For my work, I am on an iPad or computer for hours a day and the idea of reading for pleasure on a computer has never seemed right to…no one ever cuddles up with metal and plastic.
And so, the weeks stretched into months and finally a ray of hope. I could return the books that I had taken out in March. Step one! There were massive containers outside the locked doors of the library to accommodate hundreds of books on their way back home to their shelves.
Then a pause waiting for the next phase of reopening. It came with the new rule that you could call the library or email and ask for books and make an appointment for curbside pick-up. And so, the library became like the grocery store. Who knew that curbside would become such a beloved word in this pandemic.
Finally, the real breakthrough, you now email your list, mine dutifully constructed from the Sunday New York Times book review list. There is a sweet window, partially opened with a happy face of one of my favorite librarians sitting in a little desk pushed up to against the window. And the best news, you go any time the library is open and pick up your books.
I think it is going to be a long time before I can prowl the shelves, but so grateful to have a bit of my life back. And I applaud each store and each institution that has through their collective ingenuity found a way to bend but not break.
Over the next few months, we will continue to research favorite nonprofit organizations and institutions and see how they are faring and managing to meet the challenges of our Covid-19 environment.
Stay safe and well.
Lucy and Claudia