Council on Aging COVID Storytelling Project Announcement DEADLINE Extended

The Council on Aging was recently awarded a grant for a new storytelling project. We are looking to create and distribute booklets the capture our community’s experience living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Harwich older adults will be both the content creators and recipients of these booklets. With your help, we will document the highs and lows, challenges, losses, recently developed hobbies and skills, and new and deepened relationships. We are all wading through uncharted waters and working to navigate them together. We hope this project will encapsulate this unprecedented time, inspire creativity and reflection, and highlight the resilience and strength of our community.

We are officially accepting submissions for this project! Submissions may include poetry, journal entries, short stories, photographs, artwork, new recipes, descriptions of new skills and hobbies, or anything else you feel describes your pandemic experience. We encourage you to be as personal or general as you’d like and look forward to content in a wide variety of media and tone from thought-provoking, serious, or somber, to light-hearted, uplifting, or even silly!

Submissions may be sent by mail (Attn: Emily Mitchell, Harwich Council on Aging, 100 Oak Street, Harwich, MA 02645) or by email to emitchell@town.harwich.ma.us. Content should fit on no more than one 8.5 x 11 inch page (or be able to scale to this size without losing quality or legibility). All submissions should be appropriate for a broad general audience and for distribution in public venues. Text submissions may be typed or hand-written and must be legible. By submitting to us, you consent to have your content printed and distributed and to formatting edits (COA staff may alter format/sizing, but will not change content). Please also indicate if you want your name included with your submission in the publication - you may opt to include your full name, first name only, or to remain anonymous.

We ask that everyone submitting content also include their full name, mailing address, phone number, and email address for staff documentation and follow up only – that information will not be included in the publication. As a note, the COA may not include all submissions in the final publication, though we are grateful for all of them. However, all submitters will automatically receive a copy of the final product regardless of whether their submission was included.

All submissions must be received by January 15, 2021 February 1, 2020. Then, on March 20, 2021 – World Storytelling Day – we are planning a community event to share our stories and distribute them widely. The format of this event will depend on public health trends and safety considerations at that time, but mark your calendars now for a celebratory reveal of the final product!

This project is only possible with your participation. We are eager to hear and see your stories and to explore what this experience has meant for our community as a whole. Please call (508-430-7550) or email with any questions, ideas, feedback, or submissions. We look forward to hearing from you and building this project together!