Calling all Heroes without Capes!
E-mail bryn@radioalice.com and tell us more about what you’re doing to get the Bay Area through this crazy time. Be sure to include your phone number, so we can call you from the studio. We’d like to thank you and give you an opportunity to share your story!
HOW TO HELP OUR HEROES
San Francisco Unified School District - Free Meals Available During School Closure
Maker Nexus - Creating Face Shields for the Healthcare Community
National Eczema Association - COVID-19 Handwashing, moisturizing, and best products to use.
Relief fund for MINA Group Restaurant Team Members
Find out house you can help animals through the Oakland Animal Services!
Horn BBQ is serving food to those most in need during this crisis!
MEET OUR HEROES
DANI
We kicked off this segment with Dani, an overnight Labor & Delivery Nurse in the East Bay. She gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what's going on in our hospitals, and urged our listeners to please stay home!
ERIC
Eric is the General Manager of Maker Nexus, a not-for-profit Makerspace in Sunnyvale, where they are currently making Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the Healthcare Community with 3D Printers! Maker Nexus is overwhelmed with requests for face shields from hospitals, and they could really use help! They are seeking donations to cover the cost of materials (each face shield costs about $5 to produce), and they are looking for volunteers with 3D printers to assist with printing parts at home!
Here's what Eric wrote to us after being featured on the show:
JENNIFER
We talked to Jennifer, a Paramedic who listens to Sarah & Vinnie in her Ambulance while waiting for "that next call!" She shared what it's like out on the front lines during this time, and gave us a look into what's going on in our Bay Area hospitals... telling us we're in "the calm before the storm," and to STAY HOME!
JENNIFER L.
Jennifer is the Executive Director of Student Nutrition Services for the San Francisco Unified School District. On a regular school day she provides over 30,000 meals a day to school children across the city. Since last Tuesday, SFUSD employees have come in every day to assemble meal bags full of nutritious meals for children to take home. This team is coming in despite the shelter in place across the state because they know how much their "babies" need these meals. They are leaving their families, even their own children to make sure these students who rely on these meals stay fed. Jennifer says she is “so incredibly proud of our Dining Staff, it is hard to put it into words. They truly are heroes!!!”
Betsy
Betsy is a grocery store clerk. She expressed her concern with the amount of people still out and not practicing social distancing. Don't forget to thank all you grocery clerks when shopping for your essential needs!
Christine
Christine works for the National Eczema Association which is based in Marin County. Last week she heard Vinnie talking about how dry his hands due to frequent washing. She provided us with a website about COVID-19 as it relates to keeping your hands moisturized and best products to use: Click here to check it out! At this website is a plethora of information on how to keep your skin moisturized.
Jessica
Jessica a proud principal of a small school who has transitioned learning into remote learning within hours of our school closure. She uses platforms such as Zoom, Class Dojo, Google Classroom and Flipgrid as mediums to stay connected and “flip” instruction. You can check out her social media @stcathmtz Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. At these links, she highlights how her school has gone remote.
“Academics are a priority, but now more than ever connecting and community are just as important. We are finding intentional touch points to meet and check in with students social emotionally and spiritually.”
Celebrity Chef Michael Mina
FrontLineFoods.org - 100% of your money goes directly to restaurants serving hospital workers. Serves food 1-2x a week and serving about 250 meals each time to doctors, nurses in a number of different hospitals throughout SF.
Also, Serving his employee’s family’s meals for his furloughed staff. Serving a few hundred people at a time. To check out his Go fund me page for that you can google: Relief fund for MINA Group Restaurant Team Members.
Each night, the award-winning chef and restaurateur has a small team prepping free meals for his more than 500 staff members he was forced to furlough when the shelter-in-place order went into effect. “It was absolutely the hardest work-related challenge I’ve ever been through,” said Mina.
“In order to help stop the spread the of Covid-19 Virus, we have had to close our restaurants, causing all of our team members to be unemployed. We are trying to create a relief fund for our hard-working and dedicated team so that they will still be able to feed and shelter their families during this crisis. Your donations could make the difference in so many lives and help them survive until life can return back to normal. We are grateful for any contribution. Every little bit helps”
Matt Horn
Horn Barbecue’s Horn Initiative. Following the success of last week’s Horn Barbecue community meal giveaway, renowned pit master and Chef Matt Horn will continue to give back to the community of Oakland, implementing a series of free community barbecue pop-ups made possible through his Horn Initiative. The next barbecues will take place this week on Friday, April 3rd, serving free to-go meals for curbside pickup to those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Horn’s first giveaway pop-up on March 25th served up over 500 free to-go orders, inspiring Matt to continue feeding those in need and supporting the community. The Horn Initiative is a philanthropic effort of Horn Barbecue that takes its lead from Chef Matt’s lifelong commitment to give to those in need. In light of the current pandemic and the impact it's had on the food and hospitality industries, Horn would like to use his barbecue to unite people in these rough times and bring welcome relief to those most in need through the comfort of love-driven food. Serving others with a heart of gratitude.
Ann Dunn
She is the director of Oakland Animal Services, the city's municipal shelter. Ann shared some information about what's going on in animals shelters right now, as well as important information for pet owners to be prepared.
Additionally, they are preparing for the likelihood of needing to help many animals from people affected by this crisis, so are emptying the shelter now by getting animals into foster homes and getting them adopted. They've had a great response from our community from people who want to do something positive now.
Check out their website is https://www.oaklandanimalservices.org/
Julie Clemens
Julie is the director of Development at Shelter, Inc. During this coronavirus pandemic, the needs of homeless people do not stop and take time out. Julie didn't feel like a hero. She was nominated by her friends Brent and Michele.
Gretchen Walker
Gretchen Walker is the Vice President of Learning at The Tech. Her colleague Karen reached out to us to showcase all the amazing work they're doing at The Tech (formerly The Tech Museum of Innovation), a science center for kids and families in downtown San Jose. Their team has pivoted quickly to be a resource for families who now find themselves homeschooling and have launched The Tech @ Home, a site with fun design challenges, free IMAX movies, a virtual field trip and more. You can get a feel for some of our fun instructional videos here and here -- they focus on things like making an inflatable friend or making "leather" out of kombucha. They're updating these weekly.
Brendan
Brendan, from the water department in San Francisco! Brendan's wife Megan wrote in to nominate her Husband as a capeless hero! She expressed that everyday he goes off to work along with his coworkers to conduct "business as usual". They're all over the city fixing leaks, replacing broken pipes, and making sure everyone in the city has water! Most people don't think too much about that job until they don't have it! Water is definitely essential!
