Already facing challenges for financial reasons, the COVID-19 pandemic made for a quiet year at the Compton County Historical Museum Society, also known as the Eaton Corner Museum.
Whereas in February Vice-President Sharon Moore told The Record that the volunteer-run society would need to redouble their fundraising efforts and try to attract new visitors, the arrival of the novel coronavirus meant that the museum never opened its doors to the public at all.
“We just felt we couldn’t even really put into place what would be needed,” Moore said, explaining that, finances aside, six out of nine board members are over seventy and two of the remaining three have compromised immune systems. As a result, the society’s board did not feel it was feasible to open to the public, given the workload that would be lumped upon a severely limited team. “Even if we could have had someone to work at the museum, say in our archives, we would have to have put in place health and safety measures and one of the directors would have to have gone two to three times per week to be in a supervisory position for the summer student. We just felt it we weren’t able.”
“The museum is very quiet this year”
By Gordon Lambie
