A year is a long time to wear a mask. It's a long time to attend school from a laptop at a community center. It is an agonizingly long time to be out of a job. And it's too short a time to deal with the racism of history or that of our present institutions. But as these photos show, it's also enough time for people in Philadelphia and its suburbs to adapt. To rally. To vote. For one year, NBC10 and Telemundo crews have collected these photos to show how our region handled a year of pandemic. We started collecting them in March, 2020, and the last one comes from the first day of in-person school in Philadelphia this week. We'd love to see your photos of this year, too. Tweet them to @nbcphiladelphia with #OneYear.
66 photos
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"School" became learning pods, like this one at the Philadelphia Youth Basketball Academy, or kitchen tables, or even cars parked near available Wifi. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Young skaters started wearing masks outdoors in early April 2020, when the CDC recommended them. (Photo: Brad Berner / NBC10)
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When city schools closed, the School District handed out Chromebooks to students -- and a socially distanced line to pick them up stretched around the district headquarters. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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A COVID-19 testing site in Delaware County. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Philadelphia's Black Doctors Consortium, concerned by a lack of testing among Black and brown Philadelphians, rushed in to host testing sites in underserved neighborhoods. This site was in Chester, Delaware County. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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The parking lot at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies, was turned into a drive-through mass testing site. (Photo: Matt Pantaleno / NBC10)
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Temple students at a mass testing event. (Photo: Mitch Blacher / NBC10)
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And the Liacouras Center was set up as a field hospital in case city hospitals were overrun. Only a few patients were ever treated there. (Photo: Matt Pantaleno / NBC10)
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The city rolled out mobile COVID testing as well. (Photo: Mitch Blacher / NBC10)
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Early in the pandemic, Philadelphia and its suburbs closed playgrounds and wrapped basketball hoops in caution tape. (Photo: Aaron Baskerville / NBC10)
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A sign at a Lower Merion playground. (Photo: Brad Berner / NBC10)
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Businesses hoped they would only be closed for two weeks; the lockdown lasted much longer. (Photo: Shaira Arias / Telemundo62)
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Philadelphia's famed Reading Terminal Market was empty for weeks. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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On March 12, 2020, at Target on Pennsylvania Avenue in the city, the shelves for paper towels and toilet paper were completely empty. (Photo: Joe Brandt / NBC10)
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A closed restaurant in West Berlin Township, New Jersey. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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A "gone fishing" sign on Dalessandro's Steaks in Roxborough. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Hand-painted prayer signs urge "patience," also in Philadelphia's Roxborough neighborhood. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Frustration at lingering lockdowns grew in May. These protesters are at an "Open Berks and Montco" rally in Harrisburg. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Other protesters urged businesses to stay closed. These marched in Philadelphia on May 8, 2020. (Photo by Cory Clark / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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A memorial of Albert Einstein at Princeton University was given a mask shortly after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered mandatory face coverings. (Photo: Ira L. Black / Corbis via Getty Images)
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The pandemic changed every part of our lives -- masks were required at Rehoboth and other Jersey and Delaware beaches. (Photo: Tim Furlong / NBC10)
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Kids made do in the summer, as they always do, with a water hose and some toys. This was taken on July 3. (Photo: Aaron Baskerville / NBC10)
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A tradition of drive-through celebration emerged. Gritty raised spirits by riding on a fire truck in Delaware County. (Photo: SkyForce / NBC10)
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Priests had to celebrate their 50-year golden jubilee in the church with a drive-by. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Gigi celebrated her birthday on a loading dock as well-wishers drove up to honk their good wishes. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Families of first responders and medical workers went weeks without seeing their loved ones. These signs at ChristianaCare thank medical workers -- including Aunt Donna. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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As job losses stretched on and the economic crisis deepened, food banks and giveaways became lifelines. This photo was taken in June. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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For Montgomery County Community College students, graduation was held -- socially distanced -- in the parking lot. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Even with masks and at a distance, cooking out in Philadelphia's FDR Park would not be stopped. This photo was taken on July 4. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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After the death of George Floyd, Philadelphians mourned and marched together. In LOVE Park, clergy and supporters met to kneel in silent protest. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Philadelphia students took to the streets to support the Black Lives Matter movement. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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People in Morrisville, NJ, also showed their support for Black Lives Matter. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Cyclists staged a "Black Out Ride" to show their support. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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The Black Out Ride on the Rocky steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Protesters also clashed with police. This photo was taken May 30, 2020; that evening and through the weekend, peaceful protests would give way to looting. (Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / NBC10)
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Protesters in Philadelphia on May 30. (Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / NBC10)
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As the protests continued, Philadelphia police used tear gas on the protesters, some of whom had ran away to breathe. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Protestors race up a hill after being shot by tear gas. The protesters said they were trapped in the cloud of gas by a fence, with nowhere to go. (Photo: Mark Makela / Getty Images)
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Protesters and police in Philadelphia on May 30. (Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / NBC10)
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During the protests, a bride and groom getting married at The Logan hotel on the Ben Franklin Parkway left the event to join and show their support. (Photo: Matt Pantaleno / NBC10)
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Fires were set during the protests, including to two police cars. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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The National Guard was called to Philadelphia after the rioting. (Photo: Joe Kaczmarek / NBC10)
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Police respond to the protests May 30. (Photo: J.R. Smith / NBC10)
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During the May 30 protest. (Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / NBC10)
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After what had been peaceful, if angry, protests, looters began ransacking stores in commercial corridors, including Walnut Street in Center City. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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A store after looting in Center City.
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After the protests, Philadelphia began to grapple with some of the symbols of its racist past. Quietly, the statue of Christopher Columbus at Marconi Plaza was covered up, then removed. (Photo: SkyForce / NBC10)
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A mural in South Philadelphia of former Mayor Frank Rizzo was first vandalized, then covered over. (Photo: Derrick Cheston / NBC10)
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In the summer, a homeless camp grew on the Ben Franklin Parkway, and residents began to advocate for better housing from the city. At one point, residents invited Mayor Jim Kenney for brunch and conversation. Eventually, the city helped residents move to better housing.
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The homeless camp protests shut down the Ben Franklin Parkway for a time. (Photo: Matt Pantaleno / NBC10)
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A forgotten mask on the Rehoboth boardwalk. (Photo: Tim Furlong / NBC10)
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Juneteenth brought together marchers in celebration of the day, shortly after May's protests and looting.
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Pennsylvania was a major battleground state in the 2020 election. Here, Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a rally in Reading. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware all began mail-in voting. (Photo: J.R. Smith / NBC10)
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Protesters outside the Philadelphia Convention Center, where Philadelphia's vote count drew the attention of world media.
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People gathered during the Count Every Vote Rally at Independence Hall days after the election. (Photo: Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for MoveOn)
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Voting officials scrutinized the vote counts. These workers are in Cape May County, New Jersey. (Photo: Ted Greenberg / NBC10)
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The National Guard was called out to Philadelphia City Hall around Election Day. (Photo: Mitch Blacher / NBC10)
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Pennsylvania's vote -- and the U.S. election -- was called by all major television networks on Nov. 7, four days after Election Day. Crowds began to gather at Philadelphia City Hall. These pro-Biden demonstrators brought a massive eagle. (Photo: Rudy Chinchilla / NBC10)
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A pro-Biden celebration outside City Hall after the election was decided. (Photo: Bryan R. Smith / AFP)
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A pro-Trump demonstrator outside the Philadelphia Convention Center after the election was decided. (Photo: Chris McGrath / Getty Images)
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Throughout the year, neighbors helped neighbors and groups fed the hungry. Here, the Fraternal Order of Police sponsor a holiday turkey giveaway in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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A food giveaway in Philadelphia's Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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Sometimes, the greatest gift was simply to raise the spirits -- as happened for this birthday "princess parade" in the summer. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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And when snow -- and plenty of it -- started to fall in December, families got outside to play. (Photo: Dave Palmer / NBC10)
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By March, 2021, some students in Philadelphia schools (pictured) and other suburbs were starting to return to class more often, twelve months after the pandemic shuttered classrooms across the area. (Photo: Yaima Crespo / Telemundo62)
