Butler Art Center art director Stephen Haley works on a mural in the center's gallery Thursday. While the closure due to the COVID-19 outbreak has been challenging to area nonprofits, it has given Haley and the Art Center the oppertunity to focus on renovatations.

From the arts to medical care, nonprofits like the Butler Arts Center, the Butler County Symphony Orchestra, the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center, a number of museums and historical societies are losing their main forms of generating revenue such as dinners, performances, exhibits and activities as coronavirus precautions force people to physically distance themselves to stop the spread of the pandemic.

And as these organizations grapple with plummeting revenue, they are turning to alternative forms online to connect with their patrons in an attempt to recover some of that lost funding, according to interviews with nonprofit leaders in Butler County.

For almost a month, Robin Hasenpflug practiced her role on the cello for a new Butler County Symphony Orchestra show when the April 11 event was canceled in response to the spread of the coronavirus.

“It was a bummer. We were all looking forward,” said Hasenpflug, who lived in Butler for 11 years before moving with her husband to Aspinwall. “Rehearsal is a big part of what we do. We practice our butts off and me and the other (symphony) musicians started talking about it on Facebook, getting excited to a fevered pitch.”

This is an excerpt from a story that will appear in Sunday's Butler Eagle.