Introduction
As we sit mostly closed up in our homes, our community is finding meaningful ways to reach out to each other. Perhaps the most ambitious project is Red Hook Responds which is recruiting volunteers, surveying its more vulnerable residents, developing a program to provide meals to those who need them, and acting as a clearinghouse for mutual aid efforts. (At least 40 LLI members — not all of them from Red Hook — have volunteered to help with this effort).
Not knowing how long this crisis will last or how we may be affected is unsettling, to say the least. At the same time, we are all in it together with many of our privileges stripped away by our common peril. In many ways, we are coming together as a community.
Sharing Information
Each county has established an information-sharing site.
Dutchess County: lists volunteer opportunities, food sources as well as pick-up and delivery options
Ulster County: lists resources for businesses and individuals, food and daycare sources and more
Greene County: lists information sources, link to COVID-19 Task Force
Sullivan County: lists information sources, services, links to COVID-19 information
More grassroots volunteer responses are popping up, mostly on Facebook. Hudson Valley Mutual Aid Network is trying to develop a clearinghouse of local efforts.
Reach out
One of the easiest, and very important, ways of helping each other is just surveying your neighbors to see how everyone is doing and what we can offer each other. In a time of social distancing, that’s not as hard as it sounds.
In my neighborhood, my daughter and I just used public records to get the names of the people we didn’t know, added that to those we did know, and put a flyer in their mailbox suggesting a neighborhood get together via Zoom. (You can use Zoom for free for a 40-minute maximum video-sharing call). We had a great call — about 60% attendance — talked about our situations, exchanged phone numbers and emails, and we plan to follow up with another call in five days.
Everyone is well at the moment, but we learned that some of our neighbors work in health care or other essential services where they must be in contact with the public. We hope they will be okay but we want to be there for them if they fall ill.
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