CFO seeks video submissions for pandemic archive

February 09, 2021

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is seeking short video submissions from residents across the region to document the past year of living in a global pandemic.

“Your Year in a Minute” is an effort to capture local experiences of life during the Coronavirus pandemic to share now and archive for future reference. Residents of all ages across the CFO’s 58-county region are invited to submit short videos sharing how they’ve coped with life in areas such as living, working, learning and serving over the past year.

The CFO is partnering with Plotline, a Springfield-based nonprofit film and media school, to produce a collection representing a cross section of submissions. Examples will be shown throughout Give Ozarks – Rally for Recovery, a 12-hour online giving day beginning at 7 a.m., Wednesday, March 24. 

Videos should be about a minute in length. They can be shot with smart phones or standard video equipment. The submission process is simple and can be accessed through cfozarks.org/youryear. The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2021.

The CFO will use Facebook Live on Give Ozarks Day to show a selection of the videos in conjunction with a $5,000 prize drawing each hour for one nonprofit participating in Give Ozarks Day, presented by Bass Pro Shops and a number of other local sponsors. Nearly 200 nonprofits are taking part in this daylong online “Rally for Recovery” to help nonprofits raise money for operating support and specific projects affected by the pandemic.

“Your Year in a Minute” is a companion project to “First Response,” a print and online publication detailing Springfield-Greene County’s leadership response in the initial months of the pandemic. Both projects, along with other archival material about the pandemic, will be housed in a long-term special collection hosted by the Springfield-Greene County Library District.

“The CFO’s vision statement includes the tenet that ‘our focus is forever,’” CFO President Brian Fogle said. “Creating an archive of both leadership and community response to this historic period for future generations fits with both our role and the Library’s role as community anchors.”

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is a regional public charitable foundation established in 1973 that provides asset and resource development, grantmaking and public leadership through a network of donors, 52 affiliate foundations and some 600 nonprofit partners across central and southern Missouri.