The Sun Prairie Media Center wants to know what you’re up to behind closed doors.
As Sun Prairie residents, businesses, students, and city government struggle to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive shutdowns, closures, cancellations, and social distancing that it has brought our way, most of us are looking to move on and forget much about our current situation. But it’s true that in the not-too-distant future, people will want to remember what life was like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Sun Prairie Media Center, home to public access TV channels KSUN, KIDS-4, and the community radio station 103.5 FM The Sun, is hoping that you’ll take time to document what you are doing during the quarantine in the form of a short video. How are you passing the time? Have you started any new traditions? Worked on any long-delayed projects around the house? Has the social distancing ironically brought you closer to your family?
“There’s no doubt that this is a trying time for almost all of us,” says SPMC director Jeff Robbins. “But there’s also no doubt that as disruptive and frankly unsettling as this quarantine period has been, it’s a time that once it passes, we’re going to want a local and shared historical record of it. So we’re asking the people of Sun Prairie to help us compile a video scrapbook.”
Robbins says that the project began as something for crew members in the SPMC’s KIDS-4 program but that the idea soon blossomed beyond that. “Our current KIDS-4 crews – about 60 SPASD students – obviously had their year cut short by COVID-19 and the closure of the SPMC,” said Robbins. “We originally thought this ‘homework’ project could give our students some closure on the year. But since this pandemic has affected everybody, we decided to extend the project to include anyone who wanted to be involved.”
Short videos (2-5 minutes preferably) can be uploaded directly at the Sun Prairie Media Center’s website at sunprairiemediacenter.com/covid19videos/. Robbins says videos can be about any aspect of living during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic that is significant, sad, funny, or just plain memorable.
Robbins says that anyone contributing a video acknowledges that it may be broadcast on the KSUN and/or KIDS-4 cablecast, live streams, and SPMC on-demand platforms with no expectation of compensation. Robbins also says the Sun Prairie Media Center reserves the right to decline any submission it deems inappropriate for the project.
Any questions about the project or technical issues with video submissions should be forwarded to Jeff Robbins at jrobbins@cityofsunprairie.com.