Dear Athenian Community,

The coronavirus has disrupted many aspects of our lives, including ways that we work with people outside Athenian to create better communities. The needs haven’t gone away—and there are some new ones—so our challenge is to find new ways to work together. Given the circumstances, we are thinking creatively about how to take action in our local neighborhoods. Remember that the coronavirus isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. Kindness is also contagious. 

Below are some ideas for how to make a difference: 

• Support an elderly neighbor who needs someone to shop for their food and medicine. (If you live in Oakland or Piedmont, there is an organization called Oakland at Risk that matches senior citizens and helpers. They currently need help getting the word out to the elderly. You can print out their flyer and distribute it, door-to-door, in your neighborhood. If you’re willing to support a senior, you can put your name and phone number on the flyer.)
• Help an elderly neighbor care for their pet by walking their dog and/or getting pet food.
• Provide online tutoring to an elementary or middle school student.
• Pick-up trash or clean up a local park. Maybe you can do this with friends if you maintain 6+ feet distance between yourselves.
• Organize a fundraiser to support an organization.
• Volunteer at the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties. The food bank is considered an essential service; they are still functioning and they need volunteers. You can sign-up online to help at their warehouse in Concord. Please step forward only if you’re asymptomatic and healthy.
• There is a severe blood shortage because blood drives have been cancelled. To donate blood, you must be in good general health and feeling well, weigh 110+ pounds, and be at least 17 years old (or 16 years old with parental consent). Contact the blood donation arm of the Red Cross for more information. 
• This link will take you to a variety of volunteer opportunities that happen completely online.
• The Berkeley Mutual Aid Network matches people who have needs related to this crisis with people who can help. 
• Finally, this list of organizations in the East Bay that provide essential services shows ones that still need volunteers, though some volunteer requirements may be age- or experience-specific.

People often respond to disaster with incredible compassion. This Is How You Live When The World Falls Apart is an article in last Sunday’s New York Times about the amazing ways people responded to the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.  Rebecca Solnit’s excellent book, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster is a longer work at  the same phenomena. Rebecca lives in San Francisco and the first part of her book describes how people here responded to the 1904 earthquake.

Let me know what you’re planning and we will write our own story of caring for each other.

Mark Friedman

Community Service and Round Square Director