On the MN Frontlines with COVID 19

During this unprecedented crisis, we are sheltering in place, wondering, “How can I help? Where do I even start?” We’ve seen touching videos of people cheering from balconies for doctors, nurses, and essential workers; we’ve seen signs dotting yards thanking them for their work, but we can do even more to provide tangible help.  With your donations, we can provide the strong show of support needed during unimaginably stressful, traumatic, and dangerous times. 


Immediate needs: 

· Personal Protective Equipment - Minneapolis healthcare workers put their lives at risk every shift, facing the same PPE shortages as hospitals all around the country.  Medical, cleaning, and respiratory staff are dangerously low on basic essential supplies like masks, scrubs, and face shields - the need is truly infinite. 

· Food - Working a 12 hour shift is exhausting – the patient need is constant - but in this pandemic, with added suffocating masks and gear, workers can barely make it to the  break room, let alone eat or prepare meals.  Food is the difference between running strong and running on empty.  It not only sustains healthcare workers physically, it packs an emotional boost.  We deliver food with handmade signs and cards, so nurses know the community is behind them.  We also support local restaurants in the process, creating a win-win for all! 

· Alternative Housing - While healthcare workers risk their lives on the front lines, in constant contact with the sick and contagious, they face even more ethical and moral stress.  After work, comes the terror of bringing the disease home to families and loved ones. It’s impossibly tough.  Like us, they might have a sick or vulnerable child, husband, or mother at home.  Many workers would rather take on the extra emotional toll of isolating themselves completely from their families, using alternative housing.  We are hoping to secure alternative housing options like vacant Airbnbs, unused rooms, RV’s or garages at peoples’ homes, that healthcare workers can use as a temporary home-away-from-home in order to protect their families. 

Our goal with donations is to secure a variety of critical resources to alleviate frontline workers' stress, to meet their shifting needs for the duration of the crisis.  On our team is a Minnesota nurse in direct contact with the most vulnerable essential hospital employees - we've already raised $2000 and hope to raise more to meet their most urgent, basic needs. Megan inspires us to take action and pool our resources to help fill in the gaps for health care workers. 


How we got involved:

Megan had been working as a nurse at a major Minneapolis hospital for three years, when suddenly everything changed. She was informed that her unit was going to become the hospital’s COVID-19 unit. In hours, she would find herself on the frontlines, battling this unprecedented, devastating pandemic, facing the terrifying dilemma of countless healthcare workers across the globe – how do I do my job and help my patients, without the personal protective equipment to keep me safe?  Will I bring the coronavirus home to my daughter and wife?

After careful consideration with her family, Megan made the heart-wrenching decision to resign. But she cannot stop thinking about her second family - her coworkers, risking their lives every day, many of whom don't have the option to walk away as their family’s only source of income.  Megan now dedicates her time to delivering urgent support and aid to Minneapolis’ frontline healthcare workers.

The COVID 19 pandemic is the deadliest public health crisis we’ve ever faced. Our world has turned upside down. While we struggle with the stress, uncertainty, fear, and difficulty of our new reality, our nurses, doctors, hospital workers, respiratory therapists, cleaning staff, and all frontline healthcare workers are putting their own lives on the line to care for our community and contain the spread of the virus. Healthcare workers have always been there to care for us and our loved ones during the hardest times in our lives - now is the time for us to be there for them. 

Please consider donating if you are in the position to do so - even if it isn’t much, any amount will help to make a difference on the frontlines. If you are unable to offer support financially but still want to help, please consider sharing this fundraiser with your friends and family on social media using the hashtag #MNCovidFrontline / #ThankYouMNHealthcareWorkers, in case anyone in your networks are interested and able to donate.

Let’s come together with Megan and rally around our essential frontline healthcare workers.  Let’s show them how loved and deeply appreciated they are in our community. Healthcare workers - we see you, we stand with you, and we have your backs. We’re all in this together.