- Support a local business—GoFundMe recently launched a Small Business Relief Initiative to make it easy to support those impacted by the COVID-19
- Help Main Street! — Buy gift cards to provide critical cash support during the COVID-19 crisis for businesses in your area
- Donate to the Flexport Frontlines Responder Fund — getting supplies (masks, gowns, gloves and other critical supplies) to protect medical professionals in hospitals across the world.
- Donate to the World Health Organization COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund
- Donate blood—the American Red Cross and America’s Blood Centers announced recently that the US is facing a “severe blood shortage”. With their additional precautions in place, they are encouraging anyone who is healthy and eligible to give blood to make an appointment.
- If you had the virus and were cured, health officials are collecting plasma from people who have recovered to inject the antibody-rich fluid into patients still fighting the virus.
- You already donated $5 to Feeding America when you bought this challenge, but donate more if you can.
- Airbnb announced their global initiative to provide free or subsidized housing for healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders. Hosts can opt in to provide relief for workers on the front lines.
And when the physical distancing recommendations are lifted:
- Anonymously cover the check of the young family dining near you at dinner.
- Fill a trash bag with clothes and give them to a homeless person, or bring them something to eat.
- Go to the local nursing and retirement home and spend a couple hours with the residents
- Tip a barista or waitress way more than your bill dictates.
- Visit parts of your community thrumming with people— the local community center, library, a farmer’s market, etc.—and start a conversation with a stranger at each place. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology by a team of behavioral psychologists confirmed their hypothesis that striking up a conversation with a stranger has positive effects on the mood and wellbeing of the initiator. What they didn’t expect to find was that the person with whom the conversation was initiated was equally positively impacted.
- Help the mom at the grocery store pushing a stroller with one hand and carrying a toddler with the other carry her groceries to her car.
Gazzaley said it: “Let’s be creative in finding new ways to come together.” We are calling on you today. We are calling on you to serve. Step out of your own little world, and step into the one we all share. Today. Tomorrow. For as long as you are alive.
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