Some people say idle hands are the devil’s playthings. We think people should do what they want with their hands as long as they’re washed. After all, everyone is feeling anxious these days due to the coronavirus outbreak. If twiddling thumbs isn’t you’re jam, look to others for inspiration. There are so many ways to help during the pandemic even if you don’t have a medical degree.
When you help others, you help yourself as well. Studies show those who volunteer are happier in the long run. Plus, Americans are proving their anxious mitts can do a whole lot of good. From sea to shining sea, people are feeding, celebrating and helping heroic healthcare workers. Here’s a list of 10 ways everyday people are lending a hand while safely social distancing.
Cover Photo: JOSEP LAGO / Contributor (Getty Images)
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10 Ways People Are Helping Healthcare Workers
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Making Face Shields
Amanda Balla is a robotics and science teacher at Vidor High School in Texas, so she obviously knows her way around a 3D printer. Balla is still teaching her students but is also constructing face shields to donate to area hospitals in her spare time, as reported in The Orange Leader.
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Volunteer Pizza Delivery
Rex Smith, a plumber in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, decided to start buying hospital workers pizza after a phone call with his daughter, who is a nurse. His buddy John Henry joined in, so now both burly dudes are moonlighting as volunteer pizza delivery guys.
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Putting a 3D Printer to Good Use
With a name like Roger Cable, it's no surprise this Ohio resident is a computer wiz with his own 3D printer. Cable is donating blue and white ear strain relief devices to businesses and healthcare workers in his home of Portsmouth and beyond.
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Taking Care of To-Dos
A group of medical students in Minnesota figured out a great way to help overburdened healthcare workers. They set up MN COVIDsitters, which matches workers with students who provide babysitting, dog walking and other forms of personal support.
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Sew Cool
Gert McMullin sewed the first panel of the iconic AIDS Quilt, a massive memorial to those who died from the AIDS pandemic over the years. She told LGBTQNation.com that she realized leftover fabric could be made into a huge number of face masks, and so once again McMullin has picked up her sewing needle in the service of humanity.
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RVs for MDs
The Facebook page RVs for MDs is connecting generous vehicle owners with healthcare workers afraid of infecting their loved ones. The page is full of hundreds of stories of people like CNA Sarah Willie, who is currently keeping her family safe by sleeping in Marty Bonurant’s RV.
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Protecting Healthcare Workers
Joshua and Kai Bernard-Pearl are teenagers on a mission to make as many face shields as they can, as they told NBC News. Since their parents are doctors, the pair know how much healthcare workers are risking to save lives right now and just wanted to do their part.
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Making Face Mask Headbands
Georgia residents Ashton and Kyle Misiak wanted to do something for all those helping with COVID-19 but didn’t have any luck making masks. According to WRDW News 12, the pair realized they could make headbands to hold masks on, which are now in hot demand by healthcare workers from New York to Georgia.
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Donating PPE
When Chris Connot heard that healthcare workers were dying for a lack of PPE, he realized he could help. The executive director for Denver Mycology, a nonprofit educating folks about fungi, Connot and many others started producing sterile face masks to donate to healthcare workers.
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Crafting Mask Extenders
Teenager Noah Gibson heard from his grandma, who is a doctor, that the homemade masks healthcare workers wore hurt their ears. The child prodigy booted up his trusty 3D printer and made over 200 mask extenders, according to WCYB News 5.
