“When I was a boy and would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Mister Rogers
Here it is! This week’s roundup of all the beautiful good happening in our local communities!
1. Addison the Good Girl: City Hall Walks for Philly Nurses
Addison is a beautiful pit-bull/lab mix determined to make a difference in the lives of Philly nurses! For every donation her GoFundMe page gets, she will Walk to City Hall and back – and every dollar goes to www.phlcovid19fund.org. Her mom and dad have graciously decided to accompany her on these 6-mile walks for this amazing cause.
Not only is she giving back to the city’s First Responders and Front Line nurses, she is keeping her family in shape! If you’d like to donate to Addison’s quest to help those in need, you can donate here: Help Addison Help Philly Nurses!
2. Villanova College of Engineering: Low-cost Ventilators
Our colleges and universities are amazing places of innovation and development, especially at times like these. Villanova is no exception. Professor C. Nararaj, PhD, a faculty member with the Villanova College of Engineering, a handful of engineering faculty members, and graduate students from both the Engineering College and the Nursing College partnered with medical professionals from Geisinger Health System and CHOP to engineer the innovative design.
The goal was to create a product that used readily available parts. This will help make the process of assembling and distributing the ventilators much faster. On top of these incredible accomplishments, Villanova’s team has decided to make the complete ventilator design open source once it’s complete. This means that any person or company with the ability can copy and manufacture the ventilator to help get more into our hospitals.
To follow along with this story and connect people with the means to the open source files once they are available, click here.
3. LD Wanamaker: Button Headbands
Late this week, Governor Wolf recommended that all Pennsylvania’s wear masks when going out in public. My fiancé and I happened to have two masks lying around from when we did drywalling in our basement. I wore mine for about an hour to go grocery shopping and my ears felt like they were going to fall off. I couldn’t imagine wearing one ALL DAY without any relief for my ears.
That’s where LD comes in. She has designed a headband with buttons to hold the painful elastic bands, instead of the nurse’s or doctor’s ears. She washes each headband before sewing and all headbands are machine washable. The kicker? LD is already an amazing person for so many reasons, but she is so loved that TWO friends have completely funded the first two batches of headbands (160 total!)
LD says it best on her page: “Acts of kindness, compassion, and peace are what will be bringing us together over the next few weeks.”
If you want to get involved or know someone who could use a headband, you can reach out to LD on Facebook here: LD Wanamaker
P.S. She also owns Wanamaker Chalk About It and is an AMAZING artist.
4. Renee Wadsworth: Quarancare Videos
In life, there are these rare rays of sunshine who bring an immense amount of peace and joy to this world. This is Renee. She is one of the kindest and most caring people I know, not to mention incredibly talented and creative.
In the midst of all the chaos, she has created a series of Quarancare videos to remind all of us to “breathe, relax, and enjoy the simple things.” Now, more than ever, self-care is incredibly important, and Renee adds incredible beauty to her interpretation of what this means.
Each video follows her, her husband and their sweet pupper, Nanouk, as they go about their days together. They are sweet, heartwarming, and calming at a time when everything else seems chaotic.
She films and edits each video herself and you can find her most recent video here: Quarantine – Day 20.
She also has a great tutorial called Bedhead to Zoom Ready – Living in a Pandemic, that is definitely worth the watch if you are in need of some serious Zoom tips.
5. Merrill Reese – Let Him Commentate Your Quarantine Activities
That’s right, you heard me! The one and only Merrill Reese and the Eagles have joined forces once again to bring you an incredible opportunity. Simply send the Philadelphia Eagles a video of what you and your family are doing to pass the time during Quarantine, and Merrill Reese will add thrilling, play-by-play commentary to your activities!
As much as caring for others in these times is important, it’s also important to remember to smile and enjoy the little things. You can watch his first video commentary and submit your videos on the Philadelphia Eagles Facebook page.
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That’s this week’s round-up! Of course, there are so many more people doing great things in our local communities that I plan to highlight every week! If you know a business or person who is doing something awesome in their local community, please shoot me an email at brittleighwrites@gmail.com so that I can add them to my list!
Stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands, and always care for others.
Happy helping!
Britt Leigh
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