The summer of 2020 was a time of reckoning on the issue of racial equality after the death of George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis, while in police custody. Rhys Deiter a member of the New Palestine High School class of 2020, joined in the conversation during the school's graduation ceremony, held in July after a COVID-driven delay. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||Volunteer Amanda Writt navigates a sea of gift bags assembled as part of the annual Day of Love and Caring sponsored by God's Open Arms Ministry. The event, held on Christmas Eve, ensured that hundreds of families who came to the county fairgrounds for help left with Christmas gifts and food for a holiday meal. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||||Ellayna, left, and Addy Grace Alspaugh pull together as they drag their Christmas tree from where it was cut at Sambol's Tree Farm. Demand for freshly cut trees was as brisk as ever the weekend after Thanksgiving, as families enthusiastically ramped up the joys of the season amid the pandemic. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||An assortment of cherry-pie slices in their plastic containers await to be boxed along with Thanksgiving Day meals during the Lisa Muegge Feast of Plenty. The annual event served 2,500 meals on Thanksgiving Day. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||High school sports in the fall and winter were less of a spectator pastime than in previous years, as crowd limits and worries about the coronavirus reduced crowds at even the most popular events.||Volunteers help count early ballots in the basement of the Hancock County Annex on Election Day, Nov. 3. More than 35,000 people voted early in the election, far surpassing the record. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||Jon Burroughs, a James Whitcomb Riley actor, dons his mask as he attends the Hometown Together event. Riley Festival organizers, forced to cancel the festival, put on a scaled-down version of the annual celebration that included a tribute to the Hoosier Poet on Oct. 10. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||Runners toe the line for the start of the girls Hancock County cross country meet at Eastern Hancock on Sept. 22. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||New Palestine's Megan Diller walks to the fourth tee during sectional play on Sept. 21. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)||Hundreds of people line Main Street in Greenfield as the remains of a World War II veteran, Louis Wiesehan are driven to his final resting place in his hometown
On many days during this harrowing pandemic, the Daily Reporter’s Tom Russo has found himself in the middle of many of our communities’ defining moments of the year, from the first days of COVID-fueled panic-buying in March to the first injections of the vaccine in December. These moments are part of a rich tableau of our experiences — COVID-related and otherwise — that Tom chronicled through his lens in 2020. This online gallery features more photographs than were published in the New Year’s Eve print edition.
