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Closure During COVID-19 Davis Funeral Home finds a new way to meet an important need. Social distancing has posed particular challenges for funeral homes and for the families who need their services. West Virginia was several weeks into its stay- at-home order when one funeral home decided to try a new model. Davis Funeral Home in Clarksburg held the first drive-through viewing and visitation in the state on April 17. It was for the family and friends of Louise Fazio Boocks, who had passed away at the age of 97. A public moment of some kind was much needed. Ms. Boocks had lived a long, full life. She had a large, close family, including 29 great-grandchildren and nine great-great-grandchildren. And she was active with the United Methodist Temple in Clarksburg and a life member of the Clarksburg VFW Post 573 and the Clarksburg American Legion Post 13. During the five-hour viewing period, friends and family drove through in more than 100 cars. “What we’re all about is helping the family and trying to be creative and do anything we can,” funeral home co-owner David Bolyard told WDTV afterward. “Anything we can do to make it easier when somebody loses somebody, that’s what it’s all about.”
An App for That Clio keeps the museums open—virtually. DAVID TROWBRIDGE W HUNTINGTON, CABELL COUNTY
our cultural sites, museums, heritage tourism sites, andhistoric landmarks are among the many institutions that have been affected by the public health crisis. As museums and historic sites throughout our state and nation faced closure, I asked myself what I, a history professor, might do to help. When I was younger, I served as a firefighter in my home state of Kansas. I am also proud to have served in the West Virginia National Guard. While I could no longer help people in that direct way, I knew that these institutions needed help. Within days, the idea hit me—I could build a new feature in Clio that would allow museums and historic sites to create virtual tours of their museums and sites. Clio is a free educational resource I created in 2013 to connect people to nearby history. Clio has grown to more than 30,000 sites and includes hundreds of walking tours. But until last month, there was no way to create a tour of a museum or historic complex. However, I knew that the same code that allowed for tours using street directions might be altered to create a guided tour experience within a museum. Working with our West Virginia–based team of developers, we built a new system that made it possible for any museum or historic site in America to build a virtual tour that would work at any location. Clio is nonprofit and free for everyone, thanks to donors. Now that new system is up and running. In the past week, more than 150 museums, heritage tourism sites, battlefields, and historical societies have begun the process of creating educational tours. Each tour offers audio narration and on-demand information from curators, preservationists, artists, scholars, and other experts related to each room of a building or gallery in a museum. It’s the closest thing to being there and offers a guided tour at no cost from any location. And because Clio utilizes GPS, these tours can also guide in-person visitors when we are once again able to safely travel through this beautiful state and country. In the past week, museum staff and leaders of historical societies have sent messages that shared many years of work to raise funds or land a six-figure grant so they could build an app/ virtual tour. Now that they can build this for free in Clio, these organizations are able to do this work at no cost. I’ve been inspired by the passion of the people who staff our museums and their desire to serve school groups and the public. In the past week alone, nearly a dozen of these organizations have built virtual tours that respond to the needs of their communities. Thanks to supporters, we are also working with the American Foundation for the Blind to make the system accessible for all. Historians usually bristle at clichés like “now more than ever.” However, at this moment in history, organizations that preserve and share our history need our help now more than ever. I hope that you will support the museums and other institutions in your community. Each of these organizations depends on admission fees and makes most of its revenue during the spring and summer. Teaching history to the people of West Virginia remains one of the great honors of my life, and I hope that Clio helps everyone to discover the history of their community.
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