Young volunteers in NYC deliver food and medicine to those at-risk from coronavirus
Young volunteers in NYC deliver food and medicine to those at-risk from coronavirus
Young volunteers working with "Invisible Hands" are working to help the elderly and those with immuno-comprimised systems during the coronavirus shutdown by getting them whatever groceries and medicine they need, all while maintaining social distancing.
NEW YORK - 83-year-old Carol Sterling of the Upper West Side calls Invisible Hands “a Godsend.” It’s a volunteer organization co-founded by 25-year-old Simone Policano of Astoria, Queens about 2 weeks into the pandemic.
“I was thinking what is it I can do as a healthy young person that can help them," Policano said.
Volunteers grocery shop and deliver to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, getting them whatever they need including medicine, all while maintaining social distancing.
20-year-old Liam Elkind of Morningside Heights says that the work is the “best feeling ever to do this type of thing.”
“There are people I've met through the door. I haven't even seen their faces, but I feel like they're friends of mine," Elkind said.
Currently, Invisible Hands is serving all 5 boroughs, parts of New Jersey and plans to expand to Long Island. The twenty-somethings are developing friendships while taking orders over the phone and online. Simone says in one of her experiences with a woman on the phone “She said, Simone, today is my birthday and this is the best birthday present I could ever have and she started to cry and I started crying.”
Elkind and Sterling hit it off right away.
“She said ok when this is over you are coming over for cookies and tea and I said ok. Sounds good,"
Carol says “The opportunity to make a friend who's 60 years older and stay in contact with that friend, which he did with me like he has gives me hope.”
In this case, social distancing is actually becoming a social connection and it's bringing people together in unexpected ways. So far, Invisible Hands has made more than 35 hundred deliveries.
Simone says “People are just as thrilled to get the phone call and chat for awhile as they are with getting the groceries.”
“I believe Liam and I are connected in a way that will be a lasting friendship," Sterling said.