Remembering 2020: The Cape Fear Museum is recruiting your mementos to tell this year’s story for future generations.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Remembering 2020, and what a year it’s been.

If, thanks to COVID, it seems like forever, little Scarlett Stroupe of Pender County is proof that it hasn’t been. Scarlett made news as the first local baby born in 2020, and her mom will tell you it’s been quite a ride.

“We’ve been lucky, we really have,” said Bridgette Stroupe. “We haven’t been impacted like other families, but I think when she gets older, we’ll just bypass this year altogether.”

Bridgett may not want to remember, but the Cape Fear Museum is doing what it can to make sure generations will remember 2020. For months, the museum has been collecting memorabilia to put this unbelievable year in perspective.

“It’s really an incredible opportunity,” said Devin Kelly, a research and collections assistant at the museum. “We have the opportunity, in real time, to collect things for the future that we can display and help us tell a story.”

In that collection, face masks, essential worker ID’s, COVID-19 test kits, and wide variety of other items the museum is collecting on a weekly basis.

To learn more about it, you can click here.

It is rare for us to live through history and know for a fact it’s one for the history books. WECT Executive Producer Corey Preece has been keeping a log of the stories that have impacted the lives of people in the Cape Fear Region.

“Ever since this pandemic started, back in March, I’ve been keeping track of stories we’ve done on WECT, and as you can see, page after page, on a daily basis has dealt with COVID,” he explained.

On January 1, Scarlett Stroupe will be celebrating her first birthday. Her mom, Bridgette, hopes her daughter has a childhood to remember, for all the right reasons.

“I know kids, today, don’t have the childhood we all had growing up,” said Bridgette. “It’s sad, I know it can’t go back to the way it was, but I would like for her to have a little piece of that.”

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