SHS senior creates local COVID-19 resource map

Landon Watson has brought a little Stanford University know how to Shelbyville.

Shelbyville High School’s top-ranked senior, who will attend Stanford University in the fall, spent a couple days recently compiling resources for Shelby County residents during the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I saw Stanford’s journalism school put together this project for the whole Bay area,” explained Watson. “They made a map of all the places you could get food and resources so people could go to that one place and click.”

Not finding an organized list of resources to help residents, Watson opted to create one using a Google program that Stanford put to use.

“I looked at a couple of YouTube videos on how to start a map and how to do it,” he said. “It’s pretty self-explanatory. It just takes a bunch of inputting work. I didn’t have anything to do so I figured I would go to all these websites and do a little project and feel good about it afterward. I hope it helps a few people out.”

The final product is accessible at https://lwatson792.wixsite.com/covid19 shelbycounty.

Once the map appears, click on the legend box in the top left corner and a number of options will open up for food pantries, groceries, meals and prescriptions with corresponding pins marked on the map. A click on a resource will open a new screen with general information including location, phone number and website with links to its services.

The final category lists the three Shelbyville elementary schools that will be serving lunch in April while school is closed down during this virus outbreak.

“I got bored and saw all these people helping out around the community and I am limited being a student and not being a first responder,” said Watson, who spent two months at Stanford during the 2019 summer session.

So Watson found another way to contribute.

“I tried to put it all in an organized central map that people could use,” he said. “I hope it can help one or two people out. I hope it can help someone get those resources from some of those places.”

Watson realizes he may not have captured every Shelby County resource. If you know of a resource not included in Watson’s Shelby County COVID-19 Resource Map, text him the details at 317-646-0821 or direct message him through Twitter at @landon watson12.

“If people see there is not something in there, I can add it in there. It has live updating,” said Watson.