These last few days I’ve had my share of helplessness. How can I do more? Why aren’t people listening? Why can’t people just stay the eff home for 14 days? Why the eff did our government not have better plans in place for a potential pandemic? I could go on and on. The bottom line is this is serious. And scary. If we haven’t learned from what we’ve seen in China and Italy, we’re going to learn very quickly, very soon with New York. My heart breaks with every update I read. More and more cases, more and more needing hospital care, medical staff without the equipment to fight this, making do with what they have and still fighting. Soon they are going to have to start making even more difficult decisions - who gets to live and who dies. It’s a horrible situation to be in. But it’s looking to be our reality soon.

To help with some of the helplessness I, and maybe you, am feeling, I’ve compiled a list of ways you can help below. Some are simple and don’t take much effort, others might require a skill or donation. You do you and what you need to do to help. We’re all in this together and the sooner we start to realize that, the sooner we’ll get through it (It’s the optimist in me that thinks like this!)

• Check in on neighbors, family, friends. See if they need anything - groceries, someone to talk to, just a hello.

• Support your local businesses : You can do take out from many restaurants, order online from stores you want to see make it through being closed to people, write a google review for them (This one costs you nothing and goes a LONG way to supporting them in the long term).

• Donate to your local food bank, the red cross, give blood, your local shelter could use supplies, seek out organizations in your community that need help keeping their organizations running

• Sew masks if you know how to sew - due to the extreme shortage, too many healthcare worker are using old masks or not wearing one at all. There’s been a huge call for help to sew and ship masks to hospitals /organizations in need. Check with organizations in your area to see if they are in need and ask if they have any specifications before you sew a bunch. These masks are a last resort and are not a way to stop the virus from spreading - so please make sure the organization truly can use them. You can find a tutorial here (in her stories under masks).

• Last, but certainly not least - STAY HOME! The only way we are going to get through this is to flatten the curve. We don’t have a cure or vaccine yet. We know it’s highly contagious and predicted that the majority of people will get it. That’s why we have to slow it down. Our healthcare systems are not set up to meet this demand. We need to stay home to help slow it.

Let me know what you’re doing to help. What did I miss? What organizations are in need? how can we all do more?