Coronavirus Service Project | Newington, CT

COVID-19 hit all of us fairly quickly and unexpectedly in the middle of March 2020. Yes, we were aware of its worldwide presence and many started to become infected here in the United States. But it wasn’t until, after coming home from school on Thursday, March 12th, we received word from our Superintendent that schools would be closed effective Friday March 13th. This also quickly made small businesses need to close as well up until the Governor’s non-essential closure order as of March 22nd. With adjusting to our new normal came brainstorming about how we could help the community ourselves. Commodities like toilet paper, sanitizers, masks, and gloves were quickly becoming hard to come by for our first responders and area hospitals. Cases were growing quickly and supplies diminishing. So, the Coronavirus Service Project was born at The Flash Lady Photography. We posted on our business Facebook page and numerous local town group pages as well asking for help that I would help facilitate. And almost immediately, people started contacting me asking how they could help or that they were in need themselves. I delegated assignments for searching out what limited supplies were left at the stores and also coordinated others for making homemade masks when surgical masks quickly sold out. We even took inventory of our own limited stock of materials and donated nearly everything to cause as well. I was so proud of our town for coming together and the many that started dropping off supplies. Over the course of a few weeks, we were able to collect enough to put together large bags of PPE donations for the Newington Police Department, Newington EMS, UConn Health Center, & Hartford Hospital. Through my business work and involvement with the Newington Chamber of Commerce, I have a number of close contacts with each of these organizations who could get the materials to the right place. My daughter joined to help sort the collection as well as draw something on each of the bags to make everyone smile! Everyone was so appreciative of the supply drive, and UConn Health even wrote an article about “Lessons Learned Outside the Classroom”. The Police Department sent my daughter a badge and there were letters of thanks sent as well. We’ve continued to collect items for those in need as we can. The real heroes have been working behind the scenes day in and day out, and we are only honored to be a small part of the process.