The Zelienople Historical Society usually focuses on the past.

Today, however, it's recording history as it happens.

The society launched a campaign to collect artifacts and other records of life during the coronavirus pandemic, including memoirs, journals, videos and photos as well as any other documentary depictions of the COVID-19 lifestyle.

It's not only the mask-creating and wearing or social distancing they're interested in, either. The sudden homeschooling of children, haphazard remote working and empty streets and sidewalks were — and for some still are — part of the COVID-19 era's changes to life.

Katina Koontz, who is on the society's accessions and acquisitions committee, said the idea is a change for the group, but one they hope will further its future permanent collection.

“You think about history in the past,” Koontz said. “This is our first experience with donating as it's happening.”

This is also a unique period for what can be donated. While many historical collections contain journals and journal entries, fewer people keep journals. But the proliferation of smartphones means it's easier to grab a picture, be it of restaurants at half capacity or of a family wearing handmade masks.

For those who may not keep journals or write memoirs, however, the society has an alternative solution. On its website is a list of questions interested donors can answer if they wish to contribute to the collection.

While the coronavirus is a worldwide event, the society is interested in how it's affected Zelienople.

“It's to collect, in a sense, how the world responded, but particularly how Zelienople responded to this, how people banded together,” Koontz said. “Just to look back and show people in the future just what people went through, especially in the year 2020, you think, 'Can this be happening?' at times.”

Thus far, the society has collected a few items, including newspaper clippings. Physical artifacts, however, aren't flowing in as people continue to use them, Koontz said. But once the pandemic has reached its end, the society expects an influx of mementos to help document the present for the future.

“The intent is to keep an ongoing collection until, hopefully, we get through this,” Koontz said.