Patsi Trollinger is Collecting “Voices Beyond the Virus.”
She has a project called “Voices Beyond the Virus” where young people are encouraged to tell their stories about how the pandemic is affecting their lives.
Young people, she says, will be the ones to deal with the ramifications of this unusual time for the longest time – far into a future that many of us won’t reach. So she has been seeking stories from young people all over the world and sharing them on a Facebook page, but also collecting them for a longer more-permanent collection in a museum. She currently has a tentative agreement with the Kentucky Historical Society to accept a copy of the finished product, but she hopes to do something on a larger scale – perhaps even a book.
In the meantime, she’s been sharing written versions of the stories with teachers who want to use the stories to help their students “who need to understand they are not alone” in this situation.
As she sought out a diversity of young people, she quickly ran into a snag: she was finding that if she wasn’t careful she would only be interacting with middle class kids with great wifi and superior cell phones. Not one to be stumped, Patsi has used her best legerdemain and found trusted friends and family who could connect her with young people who are able to share from a wide variety of stations and experiences. She has even found ways to talk with teenagers from other countries, making this a truly international project.
You can find a link to the project on Patsi’s webpage: PatsiBTrollinger.com. And you can hear an interview with her on WEHC-FM at 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 12th. Stream it live.
- Patsi Barnes Trollinger, E&H Class of 1972