Health care workers have earned new respect for their long-standing commitment to saving lives. While the rest of the world stayed safely in their homes, Riverside’s team bravely stared down the virus in hospitals and provider offices every day. Hundreds of community members and organizations across the region and across the country looked for ways to express their appreciation.
The Riverside Foundation has fielded abundant offers of support, from thousands of hand-sewn masks, to donations of personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies when those items were hard to come by, to cards, banners and posters letting our team members know how valued their work was, to comfort items for rejuvenating tired team members. And oh, the delicious food! Our hardworking team might not have had time to bake quarantine bread, but we feasted on thousands of meals, snacks and treats donated by our generous neighbors.
Hundreds of our donors during this period were first-time donors to Riverside. In ways small and large, community members recognized the dedication of our team members and responded with thoughtful, meaningful gifts. This support in turn nurtured resilience in our team at a time when innovation, quick action and agility were necessary to be prepared for the changing environment.
In the early spring, the Eastern Shore experienced a COVID-19 patient surge long before cases rose in the rest of the Commonwealth. The Shore team worked tirelessly to care for their friends and neighbors with back up from Riverside Regional Medical Center, showcasing the power of an integrated health care system to care for its communities. Shore residents responded in gratifying numbers to a special solicitation to support their local health care team. In the early stages of the pandemic, when finding PPE was a challenge, Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) came to Riverside’s rescue. There was an urgent need for face shields and N95 masks. NNS donated PPE off their tool-room shelves to help meet immediate needs and connected local health care organizations with shipyard vendors who could provide additional supplies.
“They’re the front lines. If they get sick, they can’t take care of us. It only makes sense,” said NNS General Foreman Warren Doyle. “As the tool room, we’re a service organization by definition. Helping is what we do.” Shipbuilders also looked into opportunities to use NNS’s 3D printing capabilities to manufacture critical equipment for health care.
Rosie’s Gaming Emporium in Hampton was closed for business in the spring due to COVID-19. With their facilities closed, they used their idle kitchens to provide 2,300 free pizza meals for our local health care heroes.
On the Eastern Shore, both Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms have been generous in donating chicken products to Riverside team members in thanks for the dedication displayed toward caring for the sick and toward keeping virus transmission in check.
Just before 2020 came to a close, the COVID-19 vaccine became available for health care workers and other essential front-line health professionals. Riverside stood up vaccine clinics to start getting “shots in arms” as quickly as possible.
