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Kelowna Museum Society documenting impact of pandemic

Making virus a history lesson

It's no secret the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the way we live, both locally and globally as countries grapple with the virus.

Now, the Kelowna Museums Society is documenting your experiences of the pandemic so the story can be told for generations to come. 

"For something so current and impactful, it’s important to document it as its happening, and capture people’s responses to it as the situation changes," says KMS archivist Tara Hurley.

"A number of years ago when the Okanagan Mountain Park fire we did something very similar as well. This is obviously something completely different because it keeps going and it's so new, it's so fresh. It's been two months, three months of people being at home, of your work being impacted and it's going to continue on as the summer progresses ... so to be able to track people's responses to it as it goes I think is a really exciting opportunity to have that for future research."

They'll be collecting face masks, hand sanitizer, COVID-19 signage and various other physical items that people have had to incorporate into daily life as a result of the pandemic. 

The museum is also inviting the general public to get involved, by sharing thoughts and experiences of the pandemic via an online questionnaire.

Hurley says it's a privilege to be invited into the memories of residents who choose to share their experience of the pandemic with the museum.

"When you receive things like this you feel bonded with the response, because people are sharing pretty emotional and personal information about how they’ve personally been affected, so you feel like I was affected that way too, or I never looked at it this way.

"You get this human connection through it all, so that’s one of the things we’re also hoping as a side effect of the questionnaire. Not only is it providing information for us and for future exhibit content, for future research for us to be able to look back on, but also as an outlet for people to express themselves.

"It’s a really terrible situation we all find ourselves in but we’re hoping there’s some unique outcomes from this."

To share your COVID-19 story and help document the pandemic via the museum’s online submission process, visit the website



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