Faces of Greenbelters during the Pandemic, and Contest Winners!

Contest Winners!

To entice Greenbelters to share their pandemic/shutdown experiences, Greenbelt Online announced a contest, with two prizes of $50 credit at locally owned restaurants for one winner chosen at random and another winner we’re calling the “Editor’s Choice.” We received videos, poems, narratives, and lots of photos. Here are our favorites.

The Greenbelt Museum has offered to be the repository of all pandemic-related materials collected by Greenbelt Online; they’re collecting items directly, too. Lots of cities are compiling evidence of life during the pandemic, most often by museums and libraries.

The winner chosen at random is Anna Bedford-Dillow, who submitted the photo above: “My 3-year-old refusing to take off her mask on Zoom meeting with class at Greenbelt Nursery School.”

The “Editor’s Choice” winners are David and Sandra Lange, for their article about using their $1,200 checks from the government to buy grocery store gift cards and then donating them to area food banks.

Next Contest – Deadline June 1

Let’s do this again! Submit your photos, poems, narratives, videos or artwork to editor@greenbeltonline.org to win one of two more $50 restaurant credits.

Faces of Greenbelters

My name is Alyssa Heintzelman and I am 19 years old. I work at Creative Kids Camp and I am eagerly waiting to see if camp will still be in session this summer. As a part of my Introduction to Sculpture class at my college, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, I had to create a piece that shows “How Covid-19 Affects My Life” for my final project. My mental health has been effected due to the fact that public places are closed and I cannot visit my friends. I feel as if I am a puppet and the coronavirus is the puppeteer. So, I decided to reverse the roles. I made the coronavirus into a puppet! I also dressed half as if I was hospitalized due to Covid-19 and half as if I were going to prom, because I know many seniors in high school have had their proms cancelled. I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did creating it.

The popularity of jigsaw puzzles during these times is evident here at the home of Joe, Lien and Maya Gareri and mom Holly Wheeler. Photo by John Gareri.

From Ilse Catalan Patrick: “Nothing says quarantine (to us) like virtual preschool meetings!! Here’s my daughter attempting to pay attention but let’s be honest, at 3, it’s more for me than for her.”

From Melanie Peral Gaschick “The family that wears matching masks together stays together.”

From Piri Jenkins: “Daughter helped sew her own mask and we had a make a matching mask for her doll.make a mask.”

.Sarah O’Brien submitted a collage of her “daily sunrise walks.”

LaWann Stribling invited us to peruse her Instagram account and use anything we wanted – this is our favorite.

Thelma Martinez created this collage of “A bit of our days – my son taking facial covering to a whole different level (LOL), short walks, work from home, home schooling and a favorite chalk art.”

From Barbara Bjanes: John Henry Jones seen during his 92nd birthday drive-by (mostly) celebration.

Left, submitted by Samantha Buker, “Our foster dog Izzie. We would not have time to foster if we weren’t quarantined right now.” Right: Steve Cohen sent us this shot of a dog encountering a “neighbor wearing PPEs.”

Left: from Shobha Dandeker Duncan: “A thank-you posted on our door.” Right, it’s not a “face” but what we’re seeing instead these days – a mask, in the making. Sylvia Hester calls it “My last mask.”

NOTE: By contributing these pandemic stories, photos, et cetera, Greenbelters are making an unconditional donation of the material to the nonprofit Greenbelt Online.org and the Greenbelt Museum/City of Greenbelt, which reserve the right to keep, lend, or otherwise dispose of the donated material, and may use the material on our website, for social media or other postings, in promotional materials or in future exhibits.