MCPS workers distribute 2 million meals, put health concerns aside to help kids access their learning

| Published: 2020-05-18 17:22

MCPS employees distribute free meals at JoAnn Leleck Elementary School, of the district's 50-plus meal sites

Photos by Caitlynn Peetz

Shortly after the sun rose on Wednesday, Theresa Goo arrived at JoAnn Leleck at Broad Acres Elementary School in Silver Spring, just as she had done nearly every day for two months.

With the colors of the sunrise washing over the parking lot, Goo adjusted her hat a navy ball cap with Serving on the front line stitched above the brim and got to work.

Each day, she arrives at a strange scene. Usually, the school would be bustling with activity as staff members prepare for students to arrive for classes. But, now, as schools remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Goo, the site coordinator, works alongside just a handful of others, packing bags of food to give to students in need.

We make sure the kids dont go hungry, Goo said, and it is our pleasure.

About four hours before the site is set to open, Goo and her staff greet a truck that arrives to drop off food. Then, they stand six feet apart, packing the food into bags. The work is nonstop, but passes quickly.

Right at 11 a.m., when MCPS meal sites officially open, a run-down green van pulls into the parking lot. Goo calls out a greeting: Hello! How many do you need?

A young girl, with short black hair whipping in the wind, holds her hand out the window, all five fingers extended.

Workers grab five bags, set them on a cart well more than six feet away from the packing table and retreat.

The girl, her mouth covered with a pink cloth mask, spills from the vans backseat, bounds over to the cart, grabs the bags and climbs back into the car. Then its goodbye until Friday.

The whole exchange takes about 45 seconds, but school officials say the benefits are immeasurable.

I think it helps kids access their learning, Leleck Principal Harold Barber said. Before we can talk about kids having access to online learning, their basic needs need to be met first.

Leleck is one of 51 sites where MCPS employees set up camp on weekdays to distribute the food, which includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Since March 16, the first day Maryland schools were closed, MCPS has distributed 2 million free meals about the population of the state of New Mexico to school-aged children.

***

At Leleck, nearly every student has at some time been eligible for free and reduced-priced meals (FARMS), a data point the school district uses to measure poverty.

Bordered by low-income housing, the school is home to about 800 students, many of whom have parents who have multiple jobs or are considered essential workers, still reporting to work during the strictest stretch of the states shutdown.

Many essential jobs, like grocery store clerks and fast food workers, earn low wages and many are held by minorities. (MCPS supporting services employees, which includes food workers, make a minimum of $15.32 per hour, according to the unions salary schedule.)

On average, Leleck gives away approximately 500 meal bags packed with items like fruit, vegetables, milk, sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, yogurt and salad each day. On Wednesday, about a dozen were delivered to nearby families with at least one person who had COVID-19.

We have to meet families where they are, said Susan McCarron, director of MCPS Division of Food and Nutrition Services. Kids cant learn if theyre hungry or if theyre worried about where their next meal is coming from. So this is important.

The story is the same in many communities across Montgomery County, particularly in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poverty.

In MCPS, about one-third of students were eligible for FARMS pre-pandemic. Its difficult to know what that number is now, but staff members say anecdotally, the need has definitely increased.

Since the first week of March, more than 60,000 Montgomery County residents have filed initial unemployment claims, which undoubtedly will add to the number of families who need food assistance.

Thats why the school district aims to continue providing meals at its more than 50 sites throughout the summer.

MCPS usually distributes free meals during the summer, but at about half of the number of sites. Those locations are in the countys highest poverty neighborhoods, as outlined by federal guidelines.

But as the economic fallout of the pandemic mounts and more residents find themselves, often for the first time, struggling to make ends meet, MCPS officials say they feel compelled to increase not decrease their efforts.

Meal sites operate on the honor system, so if a parent shows up and says they need four meals for their children at home, they receive four meal bags, no questions asked.

We recognize that this need will increase because of the economic insecurity that is occurring and its something were talking about now in terms of how we sustain this through the summer, said Jeanie Dawson, director of MCPS Department of Materials Management. We know our families are going to need that.

During a meeting with the Montgomery County Council this month, MCPS Superintendent Jack Smith said the districts food services budget was about $4 million in the red, but added: We intend to continue meal services.

Smith said he is hopeful the United States Department of Agriculture will grant a waiver allowing the additional sites to continue operating through the summer and that the state will use emergency federal funding to help pay the costs.

Its a good thing were providing meals as much and as often as we can, Smith said.

***

Each of the approximately 300 MCPS employees working at meal sites across the county volunteered to be part of the food distribution efforts, according to district officials. They are paid, but none is required to do this work.

Many employees, like Goo, are helping at sites where they dont usually work, teaming up with a mix of staffers from various schools. Because they all have a common goal, the work has gone smoothly, Goo said.

Along with school-based sites, MCPS has set up a handful of sites at apartment complexes and mobile home parks. It sends buses full of meals into high-need neighborhoods where families might not have access to transportation and otherwise could not get the free meals.

Usually, many of the same families stop for meals each day, but Wednesdays are particularly busy.

In April, MCPS cut the number of days it distributes meals, closing sites on Thursdays. To offset the change, food distribution sites hand out double meal bags to each family on Wednesdays.

It gives our staff time away to decrease the number of days of exposure, and also allows parents and guardians one less day to have to come out and get meals, McCarron said. It works well, but its a lot of work.

Many schools also distribute laptops and paper copies of class lessons on Wednesdays, prompting a steady, socially distanced stream of visitors.

Amid all of the activity, workers remember theyre doing this job because of a disease, undetectable to the naked eye, that has sickened nearly 40,000 and killed more than 1,900 Marylanders.

Sure, theres always a worry [about getting sick], McCarron said. We just constantly reassure them theyll always have their (personal protective equipment) and social distancing will be enforced, and that well keep doing the best we can to keep them safe.

Meal site workers wear masks and plastic gloves at all times and, most of the time, they are spread out along a long plastic table. Theyre doing what they can to be safe, Goo said.

Still, at least two MCPS meal site workers have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to messages sent to the community from the school district.

The two workers, staffed at Glen Haven Elementary School, were quarantined, as well as everyone who worked with them. The schools kitchen was temporarily closed for deep cleaning and a food truck was brought in to continue services.

But in a system reinvented in days Gov. Larry Hogan announced schools would close on a Thursday, and MCPS was distributing meals on Monday, the day the closures took effect there were bound to be a few hiccups.

On March 11, MCPS officials told the Board of Education they were brainstorming what meal distribution might look like if the pandemic forced schools to close. Maybe some schools could be regional hubs to distribute meals. Maybe school buses could be used. Nothing was final, but not providing meals was never an option, school officials said.

The next day, the plan was suddenly put in motion.

Workers at Leleck said the first few weeks were difficult, but they have now hit their stride.

Many of the workers across Montgomery County are women with children, who leave their young ones at home to help other peoples children.

They stand for seven-plus consecutive hours, and they are physically and emotionally tired.

But when that little girl, black hair blowing in the wind, hops out of her familys run-down green van on Friday, as she does most days, and says, Thank you very much, staff members smile behind their masks and keep working.

Our number one goal is to serve our families, Dawson said. Thats at the heart of all this. Someday, this is all going to pass and well go back to normal, but these workers will be able to say they made a big difference for a lot of children.

Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@bethesdamagazine.com

Go here to read the rest:
'Serving on the front line' - BethesdaMagazine.com

The virus arrived on the reservation in early March, when late winter winds were still blowing off the mesas and temperatures at dawn were often barely above freezing.

It was carried in from Tucson, doctors say, by a man who had been to a basketball tournament and then made the long drive back to a small town in the Navajo highlands. There, believers were preparing to gather in a small, metal-walled church with a battered white bell and crucifixes on the window.

On a dirt road at the edge of the town, a hand-painted sign with red letters points the way: Chilchinbeto Church of the Nazarene.

From that church, COVID-19 took hold on the Navajo Nation, hopscotching across families and clans and churches and towns, and leaving the reservation with some of the highest infection rates in the U.S.

Crowding, tradition, and medical disparities have tangled together on the tribes land an area nearly three times the size of Massachusetts creating a virological catastrophe.

And the most basic measures to fight the virus spread handwashing and isolation can be difficult.

One-third of the homes across the vast, dry reservation dont have running water, forcing families to haul it in. Many in close-knit Navajo communities live in crowded houses where self-quarantine is impossible, and many must drive hours to the nearest grocery store. To most Navajo, isolating an infected person from their family is deeply alien.

The Chilchinbeto meeting, which brought people together from across the region, included everything from discussions of church finances to a joyful meal of roast beef. They prayed for strength in the face of the new virus, which seemed like a distant worry.

Instead, it was already in their midst.

Were such a small town. Were so remote, said Evelyna Cleveland-Gray, a Chilchinbeto official who struggled to keep residents from panicking as the virus ripped through the town of about 500, eventually killing more than a dozen people. We never thought it would hit us.

By now, the loss is felt across the Navajo Nation.

With roughly 175,000 people on the reservation, which straddles Arizona, New Mexico and a small corner of Utah, the Navajo Nation has seen 3,122 cases a rate of nearly 18 cases per 1,000 people. At least 100 people have died.

If Navajo Nation were its own state, it would have the highest per-capita rate of confirmed positive coronavirus cases in the country, behind only New York. In the states it spans, the number of cases and deaths among people who are Native American, on and off the reservations, is disproportionately high.

There was the beloved 42-year-old high school basketball coach who left behind five children. There was the carpenter who lived with his brother and died on Easter morning at age 34. There was the 28-year-old mother who competed in Native American pageants.

And on the far western side of the reservation, theres the extended Dinehdeal family who live in a cluster of prefabricated houses and mobile homes in Tuba City. A dog on a long chain lies in the driveway, sleeping in the soft red dirt that sweeps across the landscape. Another runs in circles waiting for someone, anyone, to throw a ball. Pickup trucks, some in various states of dismemberment, are scattered across the property.

This is where generations of Dinehdeal children have ridden their bikes and played basketball against a weathered plywood backboard. Its where the men have tinkered with those pickups and where the entire family the tight-knit web of parents, aunties, uncles and cousins raised like siblings have gathered for potluck meals, birthday parties and holiday celebrations. Its where relatives from out of town have always been welcomed.

Now, its where the family mourns.

It began in late March with Maryann Welch, who at age 82 was still riding horses and running a small sheep ranch on Navajo Mountain, the dome-shaped expanse that looms over this part of the reservation. When she started to feel sick, her nephew and her 71-year-old sister, Eva Dinehdeal, drove the 90 miles from Tuba City to take her to the hospital. Soon Eva was sick, too, with low oxygen levels and a fever. Then it was Maryanns son, Larry, a veteran of the Armys 82nd Airborne Division, who divided his time between the ranch and the Tuba City houses.

Larry and Maryann died a day apart. Larry was buried on what would have been his 60th birthday.

Dinehdeals daughter, Gloria Uriarte, had moved back to Tuba City from outside Phoenix with her 6-year-old son, Curly, thinking theyd be safer there as the virus spread. But almost immediately she was caring for nearly everyone around her, often using the traditional practices that are deeply ingrained among Navajos. She kept sage boiling on the stove, for example, and encouraged everyone to drink it.

Gloria, 45, didnt escape sickness. She and her mother died April 11 within hours of each other, in different hospitals.

In a small bedroom in one of the prefabricated houses, just down the hall from a wooden table displaying the three womens urns, Curly was tucked under a blanket. He is immobile and nonverbal after a brain injury and doesnt know what happened to his mother. His family keeps Gloria alive for him by playing recordings of her voice on a cell phone. Set on a pillow next to Curlys head of thick, black hair, Gloria gently calls out Good morning, good morning.

Curly coos softly.

Glorias sister and her partner are now caring for him.

The losses stripped the family of their matriarchs. They regret not learning how to make Evas famous yeast bread, which she sold at the local flea market every Friday. They wonder what to do with her clothes, which fill every closet in the house and its storage sheds.

Angelina Dinehdeal, one of Evas daughters-in-law, is trying to hold the family together. Grief and exhaustion weigh heavily on her.

It just seems like every time I take someone in (to the hospital) they never come out, she said.

In Navajo tradition, communities gather for four days of mourning before a burial. Sacred stories are told. Elders talk to the young about coping with death. Donations are collected to cover funeral costs. In a culture where dying is rarely spoken about, it is a chance to openly grieve.

But with families hunkered down to avoid the spread of the virus, burials have become rushed graveside services. With funeral homes overwhelmed by the dead, some families have sidestepped tradition and had their relatives cremated.

Mourning is done over text messages, video conferences and three-way phone calls.

You cant even go see your mom and dad. You cant see your relatives to find that comfort, said Cheryl Blie, a Navajo who lost a cousin to the virus. And the grief the grief is so unbearable.

The virus hit like a tsunami in mid-March, and smaller medical centers quickly were overwhelmed. Health problems that make COVID-19 more deadly, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, are all much more common among Native Americans than the general U.S. population.

A cobbled-together coalition of caregivers doctors from the federal Indian Health Service and local hospitals, Navajo Nation officials, the National Guard, community health nurses, volunteer doctors, nurses and EMTs from across the country has rallied as the number of cases grow.

The doctors are exhausted, the hospitals dont have enough staff and the protective gear is carefully rationed. Three isolation centers were set up in basketball gyms normally packed with fans for a sport thats hugely popular among Navajos to keep those recovering from COVID-19 away from their families. The sickest patients are flown to larger hospitals off the reservation.

Medical workers on the reservation work relentlessly.

When an oxygen valve failed on a ventilator at the Kayenta Health Center, a volunteer hand-pumped oxygen into a patients lungs for three hours.

You literally cannot move. You have to breathe for them, said Cindy Robison, an Air Force veteran who was among the volunteers. You are paralyzed by the overwhelming I know I cant abandon this position even for a second.

The Navajo Nation or Din Bikyah includes some of the most rugged, beautiful and isolated land in the United States. The reservation stretches across 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) with just over 6 people per square mile.

But that statistic hides how most Navajos actually live: in small towns or isolated outposts. A trip to the grocery store or the post office is a chance to socialize, shake hands, hug and catch up all the things people are asked to avoid doing now.

Navajo Nation officials are trying to get people to isolate, putting out statements about coronavirus in English and Navajo, and imposing nightly curfews and weekend lockdowns. Theyve closed non-essential businesses and popular tourist sites like Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley. They also must balance the restrictions with the realities of reservation life.

I hear a lot of people saying, Close the borders, shut down, shut down, said Jonathan Nez, the Navajo Nation president. Our folks are supposed to be helping get water for the livestock, water for the household. You shut all that down, how can our elders wash their hands with soap and water if theres no water available for them?

If the Navajo are susceptible to the virus spread in part because they are so closely knit, thats also how many believe they will beat it.

Theyre leaving boxes of food and supplies on the steps of elders homes or in grocery bags hanging from fence posts. Theyre driving for hours to take relatives to hospitals. Theyre delivering water to friends and family.

Outside a tribal office in Tuba City, a steady stream of pickup trucks waited to fill large plastic containers.

Raynelle Hoskie was pulling a small trailer behind her black Ford pickup, rushing so she could make it to her shift at a convenience store a half hour out of town. With her husband working in Florida, she was hauling water for her six children and her in-laws who live next door in a small traditional Navajo home, or hogan.

To her, that togetherness is a strength of the Navajo people and a sign of tradition.

Hoskie unraveled a blue hose and connected it to the spigot, then dropped the other end in the water tank.

Stop making us look like were weak, she said. Were a strong nation. Our language is strong, were tough. Weve always used our traditional herbs, our traditional ceremonies. Theyre very powerful.

___

Republished with permission from The Associated Press.

More:
Horror and grief on the reservation: Virus takes toll on Navajo - Florida Politics

The founder of a community group to help the elderly and vulnerable during COVID19, wants it to continue beyond the current crisis.

Jamie Nunn, who runs the Matilda Rose nail and beauty salon in Withersfield Road, Haverhill, has been inundated with volunteers since he set up the Matilda Rose -Action Squad in March.

It is working with staff at West Suffolk Council Home But Not Alone helpline, to ensure anybody who is vulnerable, gets the support that they need.

Haverhill is a great place with a great sense of community.

"We have lots of amazing people who are all happy to help people. This whole project wouldnt be possible without them, Jamie said.

As well as collecting peoples food and medicine, the group also phones 24 people a week who are lonely, offering a voice to speak to as well as checking if they need any other support.

We set this up in response to coronavirus but we will most definitely be carrying it on once things go back to normal, whatever that may be, said Jamie.

If one good thing comes from this, I think it will be that people will put down the computer and the mobile phone and actually start checking in on people.

"Its hugely important to look at whats going on around you and I think its something we are all guilty of at times.

The Action Squad has its own Facebook group search for Matilda Rose - Action Squad.

The Action Squad is one of nearly 400 community groups and volunteers that is working with West Suffolk Council to support people who are vulnerable.

Cllr John Griffiths, Leader of West Suffolk Council said: I think it is great that this group is already looking at how it can continue to support the most vulnerable in the community beyond this current crisis.

"Even before this, West Suffolk had a strong track record of working with our communities to help people, and this work will continue to be of crucial importance long after this crisis is over.

Our role is about supporting groups in their work and to date West Suffolk councillors have given a little over 7,300 in locality budget funding to aid this community response to the coronavirus.

"Equally we are here to provide the safety net so that if someone vulnerable isnt in touch with a group in their area and they dont have friends or family nearby to help, they can call us on the Home But Not Alone helpline and we can get them the help that they need.

The Matilda Rose Action Squad is to receive 150 in locality budget funding from West Suffolk Cllr Aaron Luccarini who represents the Haverhill Central Ward.

The work Matilda Rose is doing is fantastic. Its a real credit to Haverhill, Cllr Luccarini said.

John Mayhew, chair of ONE Haverhill Partnership and spokesman for Heart of Haverhill, said: Its wonderful to hear about the fantastic work of Jamie and his colleagues.

"Its a massive credit to Haverhill that this business has stepped up to deliver such much-needed support - and even better that it links in with the West Suffolk Council Home But Not Alone helpline.

"We would like to thank Jamie and all the volunteers for supporting so many people at this time.

The helpline is open from 9am to 5pm seven days a week on 0800 876 6926.

See the original post here:
Covid-19 action group looks to continue once crisis is over - Haverhill Echo

RICHMOND, Va. -- Free N-95 masks will be distributed to several Richmond communities and available for pickup for the general public this week thanks to a donation made by local business owners and community members.

Councilman Michael Jones in partnership with Charles Willis with United Communities Against Crime and Jong Lim, owner of Beaut-i-full beauty supply store at 5528 Hull Street Road is coordinating the donation and distribution of 10,000 N95 masks.

On Thursday, Mary 14, 2020, masks will be given to the management offices at Blue Ridge Estates, Chesterfield Square, Chippenham Place, and Norcroft Townhomes apartment complexes, as well as to Miles Jones Elementary School and G. H. Reid Elementary School for volunteers and families who are receiving meals.

Masks will also be given to residents of the Worsham Mobile Home Park next week as part of an information drive to spread awareness about available resources to Richmonds immigrant community.

Additionally, anyone who needs a mask can pick one up at Precious Blessings Academy located at 4823 Bryce Lane on Saturday, May 16, starting at 1:00 p.m, as well as at Beaut-i-full at 5528 Hull Street Road on Thursday, May 14, 2020 starting at 11 a.m.

Both mask distribution efforts are first come first serve and until supplies last.

Excerpt from:
How to pick up a free N-95 mask in Richmond this week - wtvr.com

As part of ongoing efforts to address health disparities among vulnerable communities and populations, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has made a significant contribution to a COVID-19 mobile testing program conducted by Wayne State University, the Wayne State University Physician Group and ACCESS. Blue Cross support will expand the program to include free testing for older adults and their caregivers.

The partnership officially launched today, with a one-day mobile testing site at Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, providing up to 400 free COVID-19 swab tests to neighborhood residents. The church is located in the East Warren/Cadieux neighborhood, which Blue Cross is investing $5 million in through 2022, a pledge that will help inclusive neighborhood development through Detroits Strategic Neighborhood Fund and Affordable Housing Leverage Fund.

The funding from Blue Cross will cover testing supplies and operations costs for mobile units to test for COVID-19 at nursing homes, care facilities, churches and other sites throughout Detroit and the region.

Expanding testing is a critical step to help our seniors and their caregivers stay safe and healthy. Bringing the mobile clinic to those in need, who otherwise may have barriers to receive the test, provides an extremely important health care delivery platform to some of our most vulnerable residents, said Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Blue Cross is proud to help these innovative partner organizations expand their vital work on the front lines in communities. Were grateful for their leadership and are honored to stand alongside them in this fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 has hit nursing homes particularly hard in Michigan, jeopardizing the lives of one of the nations most vulnerable populations. According to the states disease surveillance system, 35 percent of Wayne County COVID-19 deaths occurred among nursing home residents. The city of Detroit has confirmed COVID-19 cases in all of its nursing homes.

Nursing home residents and their caregivers are among the most vulnerable populations in our battle to fight this virus, said M. Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University. We need to do all we can to expand and expedite testing in these environments, with a goal to reduce and eventually eliminate the threat to these populations. Were grateful to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for recognizing this crucial need for additional testing and moving quickly to meet it.

The mobile testing initiative was launched April 13 with vehicles, drivers and equipment donated by Ford Motor Co. to test symptomatic first responders, health care workers and corrections officers in Michigan.

Testing is free and does not require a prescription from a physician. Each vehicle is capable of testing as many as 100 people a day, with results returned within 24 to 36 hours.

Agencies interested in hosting a mobile testing unit for a day can call 313-269-1952 or email Mseredynski@accesscommunity.org.

With the effects of COVID-19 still unfolding every day, Wayne State University is taking proactive steps to limit its impact. Wayne State has established the Warrior Relief and Response campaign to provide increased support to critical programs and services. Gifts in support of COVID-19 mobile testing will help increase access to much needed screening and testing within metropolitan Detroit communities. To make a gift, please visit: warriorfunder.wayne.edu/covidtesting.

View post:
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan expands efforts to address health disparities by supporting WSU, Wayne State Physician Group and ACCESS's mobile...

The Melodores student a cappella group didnt let restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic keep them from sharing their music with fans. Their performances, recorded using videoconferencing technology, have been viewed more than 775,000 times and have been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News and NBC News.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend lives in countless ways, members of the Vanderbilt community have shown remarkable resilience in the face of the crisis. Some are on the front lines, using their expertise to combat the spread of the disease and bringing comfort to its victims, while others are making the most of the constraints of social distancing to continue the universitys mission of education and discovery. And a few even have found opportunities to inject some much-needed humor into the situation.

Here we highlight several members of the Vanderbilt community who have stepped up to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by these uncertain times.

One of the most pressing challenges for hospitals nationwide amid the COVID-19 outbreak is a dwindling number of ventilators. But an interdisciplinary team of Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty has devised a novel solution to help boost supply: a fabricated, open-source ventilator design.

Led on the university side by Kevin Galloway, research assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Robert Webster, Richard A. Schroeder Professor of Mechanical Engineering, the team is currently on version two of the ventilator prototype and soon hopes to move into the final prototype phase before manufacturing.

Maker communities around the globe are stepping up to address the pressing medical challenges presented by COVID-19, says Galloway, who is also director of making at the Wondry at the Innovation Pavilion. In conversation with Bob Webster and colleagues at the Medical Center, we discussed how we can leverage our expertise to tackle this one issue that resonated most strongly for us.

After an initial conversation with Dr. Duke Herrell, professor of urology, biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering, about the threat posed by a lack of respiratory support equipment, Webster reached out to Galloway. Galloway already had been toying with an open-source ventilator design in his home garage that would address a key difficulty in making a ventilator: replicating the precise force of the hand involved in squeezing a manual bag.

In the first prototype, Galloway wrapped nylon webbing around a bag valve mask, or Ambu bag, and attached it to the crank arm of a windshield wiper motor to apply the repetitive squeezing force. While the design worked, the team needed to be able to control the amount of squeeze more precisely.

Inspired by a mechanism known as a Scotch yokewhich converts linear motion into a circular motion, and vice versaGalloway built his second (and latest) prototype in under three hours using the same motor, drawer glides and plywoodmaterials and tools that could be found almost anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, Webster and his colleagues added sensors and controls to the design to improve the safety and tune the in-and-out ratio to match normal breathing.

This was the result of a lot of conversations with doctors in which it became clear that a pressure sensor with an alarm on it for too-high or too-low pressure was essential to the design, notes Webster, who is also a professor of neurological surgery and electrical engineering, as well as an associate professor of medicine, otolaryngology and urology. This is something we would not have known without having many Vanderbilt physicians involved in the project.

The team is gathering feedback from ongoing ventilator tests with VUMC doctors to incorporate into a third version, which they believe will be extremely close to a design that the doctors would feel comfortable using on a patient in an emergency.

The long-term goal: Make the design publicly available so that anyone can replicate it, says Galloway.

SPENCER TURNEY

Watch the ventilator design in action:

On a Wednesday night in April, when first-year residents of Gillette House on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons would normally share a sweet treat and catch up at their traditional Gillette Gelato event, they still connectedbut this time the room was virtual.

It was clear that they all simply missed one another, says Frank Dobson, associate dean of The Ingram Commons and faculty head of Gillette House. These bonds have been forged since Move-In Day and strengthened on the halls, with faculty dinners, gatherings and more. It was simply wonderful to laugh together again.

Students, resident advisers and faculty heads of house, across all of Vanderbilts residential colleges, created virtual spaces as the year concluded to share highs and lows of transitioning to online learning and to simply hang out.

I was so impressed by the residents resilience and calm during this strange time, says Sarah Igo, faculty head of E. Bronson Ingram College. It was wonderful during our virtual Bronson Breaks to confirm that students were OK and managing in creative ways in our new circumstances.

This pause in normal life seemed to be reminding all of us how important our families, friends and communities are, adds Igo, who is also the Andrew Jackson Professor of History and director of American Studies.

Although official house activities were suspended, some residential colleges continued online versions of their traditions. At Memorial House students shared in online SMemorials as faculty head of house Dan Morgan, principal senior lecturer of Earth and environmental sciences, and his family made smores outdoors. The students in East House joined Zoom bake-alongs with faculty head Elizabeth Meadows, MA06, PhD10, senior lecturer in English. And Stambaugh House faculty head Rosevelt Noble, BS97, PhD03, senior lecturer in sociology and director of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center, continued his weekly group workout sessions online.

This quarantine situation could have happened 20 years ago, and we wouldnt have had the benefit of virtual chatrooms, so Im definitely grateful for the tools we have right now in this age of technology, first-year student Lamar Morgan said in April. I miss my people, and I want to see them any way I can.

Another aspect of the pandemic that residents and faculty heads of house recognized was the historical implications of this crisis. Its a topic that Igo and her residents discussed a lot.

I kept telling students that this is one of the very few times in their lives that they will really feel they are living through history, says Igo, who also has affiliate appointments in law, political science, sociology and communication of science and technology. We are part of something that is much larger than any of us and in which, nevertheless, our particular behaviors are critical.

I hoped we would come out of this appreciative of our fundamental interdependence and better prepared to nurture it.

Dobson says while it was no substitute for being physically together, these new ways of connecting helped support Vanderbilts efforts to nurture relationships and build community. We were all in this together whether on campus or not, he says. And since Vanderbilt is the students home away from home, the bonds were sustaining for all of us.

AMY WOLF

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Vanderbilt Campus Dining team has worked around the clock to feed the students, residential faculty and support staff who, out of necessity, remain on campus by operating two dining locationsthe Rand Hall and Martha Rivers Ingram Commons dining centers.

As part of its preparations, Campus Dining coordinated with key suppliers to ensure there was enough foodplus backupto get through the pandemic. Campus Dining staff members also adopted CDC-recommended protocols, such as minimizing contact with food, enhancing cleaning procedures, and helping ensure safe meal service to all dining patrons. Some of those changes include switching completely to to-go orders, eliminating self-serve options, and creating tailored menus so patrons could be served quickly.

Vanderbilt Campus Dining was able to move quickly to implement plans that we had discussed, practiced and planned for in advance. The team has really come together to make this happen, says David ter Kuile, Campus Dinings executive director for business services.

In addition to operating the two core dining facilities, Campus Dining partnered with the Office of the Dean of Students to develop and implement an SMS text message-based ordering system for students in quarantine and self-isolation. Students confined to their residence-hall rooms can text a unique code and order from a menu of options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Meals are prepared by Campus Dining chefs and then delivered to student rooms.

KATHERINE KEITH

When the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in Tennessee, Natalie Robbins, a staff researcher with the Vanderbilt Initiative for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Research (VIIGR), was curious to see where the cases were across the stateand how they would spread.

I was able to find maps that reported how many cases there were per state, such as Johns Hopkins global coronavirus map, but there was nothing out there showing county-level data, says Robbins, who develops informatics techniques to analyze spatial data and environmental phenomena. I knew it would be helpful for Tennesseans to see where the cases were relative to where they lived, so after a few days, I decided I would just build that map myself.

The Tennessee COVID-19 map Robbins developed not only shows where the positive cases are across the statedrawn from the Tennessee Department of Healthbut also provides the latest information on negative test results, as well as test results for non-Tennessee residents diagnosed here. In addition, the map provides metrics for each county that policymakers may find relevant to their public health efforts, including the number of families with children, percent elderly, percent eligible for federal nutrition assistance, percent uninsured, percent insured by Medicare and more.

Steven Wernke, Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor, associate professor of anthropology, and director of VIIGR and Vanderbilts Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory (SARL), collaborated with Robbins on the maps development. Our hope here is not only that the public will be able to refer to this to stay informed, but that policymakers will use this information to identify areas of the state that may need extra support, he says.

Inspired by Robbins efforts, anthropology Ph.D. student Gabriela Or, MA17who normally spends her days as an archaeologist studying the Andesdecided to build a similar map for her native Peru.

The Peru COVID-19 map provides the latest information from Perus Ministry of Health, which is updated daily. Not only does it include diagnostic data, but it also displays the severity of the disease in hospitalized patients, showing the rising demand for ventilator support. An accompanying chart also shows the rate of new diagnoses over timemaking it possible to track the impact not only of the disease but of mitigation factors, like the implementation of social distancing orders.

It can be difficult to comprehend the impact of something like this from a news report or a press conference, Or says. A map like this can help the public easily understand how this crisis is affecting their particular area.

Both maps have been widely shared on social media, and the Tennessee map has been used as a reference by Metro Nashvilles coronavirus task force. Both maps are available for any public health agency or task force to use.

LIZ ENTMAN

For graduate students nearing the end of their programs, COVID-19 created an unexpected challenge: presenting an effective and engaging dissertation defense remotely.

That was the situation facing physicist Kyle Godbey, MA17, PhD20, who found out the weekend before his scheduled dissertation defense that he would be doing it by teleconference.

Everything happened quite late into my preparation for my defense, Godbey says. Luckily, as a computational physicist, Im comfortable with computersand I embraced the idea of a remote videoconference for the presentation.

His dissertation, Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Using Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory, looks at low-energy nuclear reactions and what researchers can learn from colliding nuclei.

Kyles presentation showed that even under these unprecedented conditions, an excellent defense is possible, says his adviser, Professor of Physics Sait Umar. He delivered with a calm demeanor and presented his large body of work in a concise and pedagogical manner.

For Godbey, preparing his defense wasnt just a simple matter of flipping open a laptop and proceeding as one would in person. He tested his internet and audio connections the night before to ensure they would be able to handle the videoconference. He also had to consider that his material would be coming across screens as large as a television and as small as a mobile phone.

Beyond the technical matters, Godbey says certain aspects of his presentation also needed some adjustment. I tend to play off people a little during presentations, but in this case I had to stick to the script since I couldnt really judge peoples reactions, he explains. Jokes certainly dont land as well over Zoom, so I had to be mindful of that!

One benefit of presenting remotely is that ones presentation slides can serve as a kind of teleprompter, Godbey says. Its also less awkward to have your materials in front of you. This was beneficial in my case, as I was able to reference the more technical documents during the Q&A part of the presentation, which helped me address audience questions and keep them engaged.

SPENCER TURNEY

What do you do with 154 nursing students who are suddenly unable to participate in the hands-on nursing clinical care that makes up 60 percent of their education each week?

That was the challenge facing Mary Ann Jessee, MSN95, associate professor of nursing and director of pre-specialty education at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and the 30-plus faculty members who instruct those first-year, pre-licensure students in patient care.

With the spread of COVID-19, the students clinical education in hospitals, clinics and other facilities was suspended in mid-March. However, VUSN was unwilling to postpone clinical learning and possibly delay the students path to becoming advanced-practice registered nurses. So faculty got creative.

For a couple of weeks, we had been determining what we would do if students werent able to be in the clinical setting, Jessee says. Course coordinators Erin Rodgers, BSN82, MSN86, assistant professor of nursing, and Heather Robbins, MSN05, assistant professor of nursing, brainstormed with Jessee about developing a virtual experience that would enable the students to engage in the same kind of clinical learning they would have been doing on campus.

They wondered whether they could use the Simulation Lab and have the students participate by telling someone in the lab what to do. The faculty consulted VUSN Simulation Lab Director and Assistant Professor of Nursing Jo Ellen Holt, who responded enthusiastically with suggestions.

The result was a virtual live-streamed class with students using their instructors and Simulation Lab staff as avatars to interact with the schools realistic nursing mannequins and provide patient care.

Students instructed their avatars on what to do, step by step, Rodgers says. The avatars reported the results, and then the students as a group evaluated whether that skill was implemented correctly and discussed the outcome.

The students joined the simulations via videoconferencing, working in the same six-student groups as they would normally. Each student experienced directing the avatar and discussing the scenario with their group.

We tried to mirror the typical direct patient-care experience and clinical conference, but in a virtual format, Jessee says. We had to determine how to recreate those patient interactions and ensure that students had the ability to conduct assessments, prioritize patient needs, make decisions about care, implement that care and evaluate the results.

Throughout the simulation the instructors observed and coached, as they would with actual patients.

NANCY WISE

When the university announced it would be moving to online learning options starting March 16, Tucker Biddlecombe, associate professor of choral studies and choral director at the Blair School of Music, was among the first faculty members to embrace the possibility of teaching his students over a videoconferencing platform. His conducting class was quick to adapt to the challenges and possibilities that remote learning presented.

There are a variety of challenges whenever you can no longer interface with your students, says Biddlecombe. However, there are also a couple of benefits. One of the things that was immediately evident was that students were not used to seeing themselves conducting. All of a sudden, they had a video feeding back to them immediately all the things that I usually tend to tell them. Their immediate ability to see themselves conducting [is something I want] to integrate permanently into what were doing.

The Melodores, a student a cappella group, has used videoconferencing to continue making and sharing music during the COVID-19 crisis. The groups recent video performances have been viewed more than 775,000 times on social media alone and have been featured on Good Morning America, ABC News, NBC News, and even in a recent campaign ad for presidential candidate Joe Biden.

With approximately 20 performances lined up for the remainder of the semester, the decision to send everyone home was particularly devastating for the Melodores, says senior Matt Zhang, the groups musical director. However, upon returning home, we quickly realized we didnt need to be together physically to connect and hopefully spread some much-needed positivity through our music.

Watch a video of Biddlecombe instructing his students virtually:

See the Melodores perform a Lizzo medley remotely:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who graduated from Vanderbilt in 2000 with a bachelors in anthropology, has emerged as one of the nations more popular leaders during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Beshear moved quickly to stem the spread of the disease in the state, declaring a public health emergency early in Marchwell ahead of many of his counterparts across the nation. And his daily COVID-19 news conferences, which have been characterized as modern-day versions of President Franklin Roosevelts fireside chats during the Great Depression and World War II, have endeared him not only to the states residents, but to many others nationwide.

Gov. Beshear has started several recent briefings with his key message, We will get through this; we will get through this together, and then asked viewers at home to repeat it as well, as a kind of mantra for the whole state, The Wall Street Journal reported in a story mentioning his popular chats.

Beshears fans have turned to the internet to show their appreciation for his steady handling of the crisis. Dozens of internet memes have appeared comparing him to heroes like Captain America, Superman and even Mister Rogers. In fact, one Facebook groupAndy Beshear Memes for Social Distancing Teensnow boasts more than 227,000 members.

As NPRs Morning Edition reported March 25, Kentuckians are loving Gov. Andy Beshears leadership on the COVID-19 crisis. The fandom has produced a deluge of memes and videos online that are helping the state cope with these uncertain times.

Restaurateur and alumnus Flip Biddelman and his business partner, Nate Adler, have converted their Brooklyn, New York, restaurant Gertie into a part-time soup kitchen for hospitality workers who have been laid off during the COVID-19 outbreak. The workers are invited four days a week for dinner and essentials, including coffee, pasta and even toilet paper.

A grant from celebrity chef Edward Lees Restaurant Relief Program has enabled the restaurant to provide workers 300 meals a day, and whatever goes uneaten is taken to a nearby medical center for hospital workers.

When the coronavirus outbreak forced restaurants in New York to shut down dine-in service, Biddelman and Adler had to fire nearly all their staff as they scraped by with takeout business. That was one of the hardest things we had to doto tell our staff that we dont have any shifts for them and that they should file for unemployment, Biddelman told The New York Post.

But since starting the soup kitchen, they have been able to hire back five kitchen workers and four front-of-house staffersalmost their entire team. It has been such a relief, Biddelman said.

Missy Tannen, BS99, and Scott Tannen, BS99, co-founders of the textile company Boll & Branch, have announced a partnership with Sherwood Bedding and Downlite to manufacture 1,000 mattresses and 500 pillows, respectively, to donate to hospitals during the pandemic. Boll & Branch is among the companies recognized by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for their efforts to assist the state in its fight against COVID-19.

The generosity of these companies, organizations and individualsand many others coming forward every day to offer supportwill play a critical role in our mission to bolster our hospital surge capacity, support frontline workers, and get people the help they need, Cuomo said in a March 26 statement. On behalf of the family of New York, I am deeply grateful for their generosity.

Singersongwriter Chris Mann, who recently played the Phantom in The Phantom of the Operas 25th anniversary tour, has unveiled numerous music video parodies inspired by the pandemic, bringing some much-needed humor to viewers stuck at home.

The parodies include My Corona, based on The Knacks classic My Sharona, and Hello (from the Inside), a spoof of Adeles chart-topper in which Mann proudly sports a Vanderbilt sweatshirt. The videoswhich have racked up nearly 25 million views on the internet and earned him a mention in The Washington Post as one of the Weird Al Yankovics of our social distancing eracan be viewed at chrismannmusic.com.

U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), a former banker and deputy assistant treasury secretary, has been named House Republicans representative on the five-member Congressional Oversight Commission, created to supervise government spending on the COVID-19 pandemic. The watchdog group was created as part of the roughly $2 trillion relief package enacted by Congress in March.

[Hills] personal background as a senior official at the Department of the Treasury and as a private banker provides important expertise that will guide his advocacy of immediate and effective solutions for the American people struggling from despair during this crisis, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who had named Hill to the commission.

Go here to read the rest:
And the Beat Goes On: A resilient Vanderbilt community finds innovative ways to thrive amid the challenges of COVID-19 - Vanderbilt University News

The small city of Gonzales brought universal broadband to its 9,000 residents by inking a deal with a telecommunications company that has a vast cell network, Joe Mathews writes.(Photo: Getty Images)

If California is really the global tech capital, why is it so hard for our small towns to get the Internet service they need?

One answer to that question is in Gonzales, a Salinas Valley settlement of 9,000.

While Californias biggest cities now struggle to provide Internet access for people to work and study from home, Gonzales solved that problem a few months ago. Before the pandemic hit, the town offered broadband service, free of charge, to all its residents. The story behind this rare achievement Gonzales is the first Central Coast city to do this offers lessons about power and how communities can beat the odds.

Gonzales leadership is not a surprise. The town, surrounded by fields, is a small wonder, with low crime,innovative health services, extensive supports for children, and a diverse industrial base employing local residents.

But even for a nimble city, securing broadband has been difficult. Gonzales long path to universal broadband suggests how hard it will be to turn temporary Internet measures of the pandemic like Googles hotspot donations or short-term service discounts into long-term bridges over our digital divides.

When Gonzales started its broadband quest, in 2005, Internet service was slow and unreliable, and municipal officials couldnt get service providers attention. So city officials joined the Central Coast Broadband Consortium and started visiting the San Francisco headquarters of Californias Public Utilities Commission to press for rural broadband.

At some PUC meetings, Gonzales was the only city represented. The small town didnt have much leverage until officials discovered how to advance their case for rural broadband by protesting corporate mergers and acquisitions.

In 2015, when Charter Communications sought to merge with Time Warner in a $78 billion deal, Gonzales moved to block California from approving Charters acquisition of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems, on the grounds that the deal wouldnt help small towns. Charter was forced to negotiate with Gonzales, which dropped its opposition after Charter upgraded the towns Internet, bumping Gonzales upload speeds from 1 Mbps to 60 Mbps, and download speeds from 5 Mbps to 100 Mbps.

A tech backbone was in place, but access to the Internet at home still remained a problem for many poor families.

On my visits to Gonzales, I often saw kids sitting outside McDonalds, Starbucks or even City Hall, using the free WiFito do their homework. In 2017, such scenes inspired the city to approve a strategy for achieving Universal Broadband for All.

Gonzales asked for proposals from Internet providers, and then rejected them all as insufficient. Instead, the city began individual negotiations with providers.

T-Mobile proved well-suited for Gonzales' needs. The company has a program called EmpowerED to get students online. T-Mobile has a dense network of cellular towers in the area providing coverage to drivers on the 101.

The T-Mobile/Gonzales partnership was approved by the City Council last October. T-Mobile upgraded wireless Internet infrastructure, and donated 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspotsone for every city household.

The city, not residents, pay monthly service charges, at a discounted rate of $12.50 monthly per household device. The total annual cost to the Gonzales government is $300,000 paid for with general fund revenues and a special sales tax approved back in 2014.

Anyone presenting proof of residency in Gonzales received a hotspot; so did households outside the city who attend Gonzales schools. Since COVID-19 forced shutdowns, the city has offered drive-by service for equipment pickups. Residents tell me the devices are already activated when you get them, so they are easy to use. Grandparents sing the hot spots praises, and college students from Gonzales, now back at home, say their city Internet connections are better than their campus ones.

They work really, really well, even with all the people suddenly online Google docs, Google Classroom, Zoom, are all working, says Gonzales High senior Isabel Mendoza, 17. Before, because we have 5 people in my house, and a number of electronics, the Internet was really slow.

Ren Mendez, the longtime city manager, has been fielding calls from other towns asking for broadband advice.

I think this is doable across the state, Mendez says, if cities push Internet providers to make deals that mix new broadband investment and cost-sharing. Why cant you provide broadband for the whole community, just like you do with sewer and water and streets?

Of course, it should be much easier for poor towns and people to secure Internet in California, which invented our tech world, than it was for Gonzales. But the city doesnt dwell on past struggles its moving forward.

Gonzales deal with T-Mobile is for two years, but its renewable. City officials are planning a trip to T-Mobile headquarters, and plotting the next chapter of universal broadband. It starts with 5G.

Joe Mathews(Photo: Courtesy)

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column forZcalo Public Square. Email him atjoe@zocalopublicsquare.org.

Read or Share this story: https://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2020/05/14/gonzales-small-city-leap-community-internet-model-others-joe-mathews-connecting-california/5190919002/

Read more:
Connecting California: Gonzales' small-city leap to universal broadband a model for others - Desert Sun

Dr. Eva Galvez works as a family physician for a network of clinics in northwestern Oregon, where low-income patients have been streaming in for nasal swabs over the past several weeks to test for the coronavirus.

Dr. Galvez was dumbfounded by the results. Latinos, about half of those screened, were 20 times as likely as other patients to have the virus.

The disparity really alarmed me, said Dr. Galvez, who began trying to understand what could account for the difference.

It is a question that epidemiologists around the country are examining as more and more evidence emerges that the coronavirus is impacting Latinos, and some other groups, including African-Americans, with particular force.

Oregon is one of many states where Latinos are showing a disproportionate level of impact, and the effects are seen among both immigrants and Latinos from multigenerational American families.

Because most of the clients at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center clinics in Oregon are relatively poor whatever their ethnic background, Dr. Galvez decided that income could not explain the disparity.

Public health experts say Latinos may be more vulnerable to the virus as a result of the same factors that have put minorities at risk across the country. Many have low-paying service jobs that require them to work through the pandemic, interacting with the public. A large number also lack access to health care, which contributes to higher rates of diabetes and other conditions that can worsen infections.

Oregon last month expanded testing criteria to prioritize Latinos and other minorities, citing the higher risk posed from the virus because of longstanding social and health inequities.

At the Virginia Garcia clinics, Dr. Galvez sees those inequities among her patients every day.

We realized that it must be how Latinos live and work thats driving these disparities, said Dr. Galvez, who works at the clinic in Hillsboro, outside Portland.

The Hispanic patients, many of them immigrants, help produce some of the countrys premier pinot noir, maintain Nikes sprawling headquarters and plant berries, hazelnuts and Christmas trees in the Willamette Valley. Others are seasonal workers who are expected to begin arriving by the thousands later this month for the harvest.

They live in close quarters, often multiple families to a house or with several farmworkers crowded into a barracks-style room, where social distancing and self-isolation are impossible. They perform jobs that require interaction with the general public, in food service, transportation and delivery; and some also work in meatpacking plants that have emerged as major hot spots.

If they are undocumented, they cannot collect unemployment, which may compel them to work even when they feel unwell, facilitating the spread to their co-workers.

Carlos, an undocumented Guatemalan who was one of the clinics patients, never stopped reporting to his job cleaning large supermarkets, even after he began coughing and feeling ill, said his wife, Blanca, who did not want the familys last name to be published because of their immigration status.

Her husband medicated himself on cough syrup, but his condition quickly deteriorated, and he was gasping for air when she finally rushed him to the hospital. He died on April 1 from Covid-19. Now Blanca, her brother and the couples 13-year-old son have all tested positive for the virus.

The situation at the clinics in northwestern Oregon tells only part of the story of the nations 60 million Latinos, who represent a wide range of backgrounds and lifestyles new immigrants and multigenerational families, high-earning professionals and poor migrant farmworkers and the effects of the coronavirus already reflect that broad experience.

The disparities are bigger in states like Oregon, Washington and Utah that have newer and less-established Latino communities, compared with states like California, Arizona and New Mexico. In some states, including Arizona and Texas, state data shows that Latinos are getting sick at rates close to their share of population. In New Mexico, Latinos, who make up half the population and have a long history in the state, have about the same number of cases relative to their population as whites.

Not all Latinos are created equal, said Daniel Lpez-Cevallos, professor of Latino and health equity studies at Oregon State University. More Latinos in states with established communities, he said, are likely to have middle-class jobs or the sort of wealth that could help tide them over through the pandemic without having to work outside the home.

By contrast, those in places like Oregon and Washington tend to be lower income, with lower educational levels, lower levels of health insurance and more employment in essential services, Mr. Lpez-Cevallos said. They have fewer support systems in place.

According to a Pew Research Center survey in April, about half of the Latinos questioned said they or someone in their household had either lost a job or taken a pay cut, or both, because of the outbreak compared with a third of all adults in the United States.

The data from a number of states takes an unexpected turn: It indicates that even though Latinos may have higher rates of infection, they have been dying from the virus at lower reported rates over all than other groups.

But experts say those raw numbers understate the risks for those who become sick, because they do not take into account that the Latino population the countrys second-largest ethnic group is significantly younger than other groups. And there have been much fewer deaths among the young from a virus whose lethality grows sharply with its victims age.

But among adult Latinos, fatality rates can be much higher. That was what officials in California found when they took a closer look.

But when California public health officials drilled down further, they found that in every age group over 17, Latinos were dying at significantly higher rates than whites as were African-Americans.

Even in Oregon, Latinos have not appeared to be equally vulnerable to the impacts of the virus. Dr. Galvez, who is Mexican-American, lives in a middle-class neighborhood. My close friends and family have not been hit by Covid the way the community that I care for has, she said.

Before Oregonians were ordered to stay home on March 23, the Virginia Garcia clinic had started a campaign to educate Spanish-speaking clients about who was at risk of contracting the virus and how to prevent it.

Bilingual posters went up at the clinics, fliers were distributed and Dr. Galvez recorded a public service announcement that aired on a local Spanish radio station.

But she and other clinic staff members, who confer daily on Zoom about the pandemic, would eventually conclude that having knowledge of the virus did not mitigate its spread among people who are unable to self-isolate and cannot afford to miss a days work.

On March 11, Virginia Garcia began screening patients with symptoms of the virus at seven sites.

So far, the clinic has tested 397 Hispanics and 281 non-Hispanics in Washington County and neighboring Yamhill County, another agricultural hub. A total of 87 Hispanics, 21.9 percent, have tested positive, compared with three non-Hispanics, or 1.1 percent.

Hazel Wheeler, a manager at the clinic who has analyzed the data, deemed the results confounding.

We serve poor people, who live in the same geographical area and make about the same amount of money, he said.

But there were deeper distinguishing factors.

Most non-Hispanics whom the clinic has tested have been working from home, or staying home because they have been furloughed or laid off, typically with unemployment benefits. They were able to keep distance from everyone but immediate family members.

The majority of Latino patients, on the other hand, have remained on front-line jobs, and many are residing in crowded or precarious dwellings.

Rafael Castillo, a 37-year-old mason, learned he had the coronavirus recently along with two fellow Latinos on his construction crew.

The truth is, I dont know how we got infected, said Mr. Castillo, a Mexican green-card holder who has lived in the United States for two decades. When this illness started, our boss told us to work apart. We used hand sanitizer and washed our hands, he said.

Since he tested positive, his wife, Yanet Gonzalez, has also contracted the virus. Now Mr. Castillo, who earns about $3,500 a month and lives in a mobile home, said his main concern was keeping his two children healthy. The family shares one shower in a mobile home in Cornelius, Ore., which they try to disinfect after each use.

As they treat an ever-larger numbers of patients, Virginia Garcia medical workers are now worrying about the prospect of a second wave of infection when the annual harvest gets underway later in May.

By some estimates, the picking season for berries, pears and other crops brings 160,000 Latino seasonal farmworkers to Oregon. They toil side by side in fields and orchards during the day and bunk in crowded spaces at night, creating a fertile environment for the virus to spread.

A preview of what could happen surfaced in April in central Washington State: Half of the workers at a large orchard tested positive for the coronavirus, even though none had shown symptoms.

The findings caught the attention of Oregons Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, which last week introduced a series of measures to protect migrant farmworkers after Dr. Galvez and a nonprofit law center sought changes.

The state agency ordered growers to reconfigure worker housing to eliminate bunk beds for workers not part of the same family and to require at least six feet of space or an impermeable barrier between workers while they sleep. Growers are also required to designate an officer to enforce at least six feet of separation during work, breaks and meals.

The emergency mandates drew protests from growers who said the rules could cut the amount of housing available for farmworkers and help put many growers out of business.

Many farms will not survive the cumulative weight of these unattainable rules, which are more burdensome than any set for other sectors of Oregons economy, the Oregon Farm Bureau said.

State officials acknowledged that the emergency measures, in effect for six months, are unlike any other action taken by the state in recent history. But they said they were necessary to protect Latino migrants and the greater community.

Michael Wood, the top administrator for Oregons OSHA, said he hoped the rules would help avert the possibility that the virus tears through the picking season that runs until fall.

You cannot telecommute to harvest crops, he said.

Read more:
For Latinos and Coronavirus, Doctors are Seeing an Alarming Disparity - The New York Times

A charitable-giving organization that manages millions and has grown 380 times its initial size in 24 years is reaching out to smaller communities, including this one, wanting to make a bigger impact.

Not that it hasnt given to local causes in the past.

Just recently, the Ephrata-based Columbia Basin Foundation has given the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce $1,000 for local business support, and its donating another $1,000 to the Care and Share Food Bank, both under the foundations ReCOVIDery, initiative to help during the COVID-19 crisis. Another $600 is pledged to support the Run the Dam event scheduled for Sept. 19.

In addition, the Grand Coulee Dam Senior Center was awarded $3,700, and Friends of the Grand Coulee Special Projects was given $7,138.96.

In 2011 and 2012, the Grand Coulee Dam Rotary Club was awarded a combined $10,000 for its handicapped-accessible fishing pier at Steamboat Rock State Park.

But the foundation wants to do more, says, Corrine Isaak, its executive director, who lives in Coulee City and first got involved as a board member in 2004. She noted that several Grand Coulee organizations have applied for grants currently under evaluation for 2020.

The foundation started with a $25,000 donation for a scholarship in Connell in 1996. Now it manages $9.5 million in assets, all donated or earned on investments of those donations. The principle gift is never touched, Isaak said. Instead, grants are made from the investment earnings they accrue.

So people who find themselves with more money than theyll use sometimes leave it to CBF.

Like Herb Fakenthall, a Coulee City man who made a living digging with his backhoe, lived in a mobile home. A simple, humble man with a great vision, Isaak said. His gift of $1 million now perpetuates a scholarship fund. He never had kids, but hes helped so many with scholarships.

CBF also attracts funds from institutions and businesses. It recently started its reCOVIDery fund to help in the current crisis and raised $126,000 to give away for purposes outlined by givers like Microsoft, which donated $56,000; Grant County PUD, which gave $10,000, and more, to help families, businesses, children, schools.

Isaak said there is currently room on the CBF Board of Directors, and shed love to find someone from the Grand Coulee Dam area to join the 10 on the board now, people who believe in charitable giving.

We have to make a concerted effort to reach out to each county and make sure people know about CBFs work, Isaak said.

The foundation serves Grant, Adams, western Lincoln Counties and beyond, the CBF website states.

An advertisement on page 8 outlines the organizations many facets.

Go here to read the rest:
Foundation wants to help local area - The Star - The Star of Grand Coulee

UPDATE: New Jersey State Police captured and charged a second man with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer in the shooting of an NJSP detective investigating a trailer park home invasion committed by a group of women, authorities said Friday.

Ex-con Tremaine M. Hadden, 27, of Bridgeton, was released from state prison last September after serving 5 years for robbery conspiracy and weapons convictions out of Cumberland County.

Hadden opened fire on Detective Richard Hershey with Najzeir Naz Hutchings, 21, among others, in South Jersey last Saturday, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and NJSP Supt. Col. Patrick J. Callahan said.

Hershey was investigating a home invasion from earlier that evening at the Harding Woods mobile home park on Harding Highway in Pittsgrove, they said.

Five women had forced their way into a trailer and assaulted the owner breaking a rib and lacerating a lung -- while stealing her iPhone, Grewal and Callahan said.

Hershey identified himself as a law enforcement officer when he was approached by a hostile group identified as Hadden, Hutchings, Kareen "Kai" Warner Jr., 19, and Colby Opperman, 18, all of Bridgeton -- who pulled up in a caravan of five vehicles hours later and confronted him, they said.

Some members of the caravan were armed with guns, and at least two Hadden and Hutchings opened fire from separate vehicles, wounding Hershey in the upper leg, Grewal and Callahan said.

The detective returned fire, forcing the defendants to flee, they said.

He underwent surgery at Cooper University Hospital in Camden and was recovering, authorities said.

A member of the caravan was treated at the hospital for a gunshot wound in her leg and was released, they said, adding that she wasnt charged.

Eight defendants were initially identified and captured by New Jersey State Police Fugitive and TEAMS units, assisted by the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force and the ATF.

State Police seized Hadden Thursday night, Grewal and Callahan said.

The announcement of Haddens arrest falls on what is known as Survivors Day, when NJSP troopers who made the ultimate sacrifice are honored, Callahan noted.

There have been 75 to date.

I will be forever grateful that on this Survivors Day, instead of grieving a fallen trooper, I am able to inform the public that we have apprehended a suspect who poses a grave danger to our state troopers and society, the superintendent said. I commend the State Police detectives and our partners who worked tirelessly to bring those responsible to justice.

Najzeir Naz Hutchings NJAG

The Salem County Prosecutors Office charged the five women for the home invasion, while Grewals Office of Public Integrity & Accountability (OPIA) charged the three men in the shooting.

All were being held in the Salem County Jail pending detention hearings.

We have zero tolerance for those who violently attack our law enforcement officers, Grewal said. Our state troopers put their lives on the line every day to keep our communities safe, and Saturdays incident is an important reminder of the brave work our troopers perform.

Anyone attempting to murder a New Jersey state trooper, or any member of law enforcement, will find no safe haven, Calahan added. Our pursuit will be relentless, unwavering and swift.

It began with a 6:15 p.m. home invasion by the women, identified as Jazmin Valentin, 32, Yomari Lazu, 43, Iramari Lazu, 22, Mayra Roblero, 52, and Maria Betancourt, 39, of Vineland.

Authorities charged all with aggravated assault, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery, as well as burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Hutchings and Hadden, meanwhile, was charged with first-degree attempted murder, aggravated assault on a police officer and weapons offenses.

For Hadden, that included being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Warner and Opperman were each charged with weapons offenses.

Anyone who would open fire on a law enforcement officer conducting an investigation, as Hutchings is alleged to have done, represents a grave danger to the community, said Director Thomas Eicher of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. Justice demanded swift action in this case, as did public safety.

We will continue to work closely with the New Jersey State Police to ensure that those responsible for this attack are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Investigating were the NJSPs Major Crime Unit South, Troop A Criminal Investigation Office, Crime Scene Investigation Unit and Cold Case Unit, along with the Salem County Prosecutors Office and state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.

View post:
Second Man Charged With Attempted Murder Of NJ State Trooper Investigating Mobile Home Invasion - Paramus Daily Voice