It's More Than a Dream Productions has a proud history of assisting nonprofits, but what can we as citizens do in today's quarantine-focused world to maximize our impact and assist the health professionals on the front lines of a global pandemic?
In the spirit of March Madness: An Elite Eight list of ways to make a difference!
1) Donate Blood. The American Red Cross is just one of many organizations still running blood drives with special precautions in place. You can save three lives with one donation and the need right now is tremendous. You can find the CDC Twitter account to the right!
2) Be a grocery runner. If you're young and healthy, take advantage! Connect with elderly neighbors, church members, etc to check in with them and set up a way to get their groceries for them! We don't want them to have to endanger themselves with a chance of exposure by going shopping!
4) Support local business! If you have a favorite local mom and pop restaurant or other small business, they're probably really hurting right now and would love your patronage. Order takeout, catering, buy a gift certificate for when this all blows over, whatever it takes!
5) Donate books! Kids are probably loving being out of school right now, but we can't afford to have a whole generation behind on learning! If you have old books that aren't being used in your house, consider sharing them with a child who doesn't have any at home so that they can continue to learn and grow!
6) Volunteer from your couch! There's some awesome websites looking for volunteers that provide companionship for the elderly through phone calls (DOROT Caring Calls: https://form.jotform.com/200785012359150), help the visually impaired with daily tasks through this amazing app called Be My Eyes: https://www.bemyeyes.com/, or write letters to the elderly with https://lovefortheelderly.org/!
7) Volunteer in person! There are tons of food banks, homeless shelters, and other amazing nonprofits trying to help some of our countries most vulnerable populations through this difficult time. If you can't contribute your money, give your time!
8) Stay at home. If you aren't doing anything, then you're actually doing something! Pretty amazing right? Carriers of the disease will spread it to over two people on average. Don't let yourself become a carrier and spread it to the people you know and love, stay at home and ride it out!
Blood donors who are well: schedule appointment to donate today. Urgent need for donated blood! US #blood centers are following safety measures for #COVID19, incl. social distancing for donors and staff and adhering to environmental cleaning practices. See https://t.co/XaBrGMhDR6
