Our heroes in the medical field and in other essential industries are helping to save lives every day. While the rest of us can help most by staying at home, many want to find more ways to be useful and supportive.

LW Reedy is inspired by the many ways the Elmhurst community has found to reach out to others.

• Flavah, Elmhurst Brewing Company and other local restaurants have delivered food to our first responders and medical staff.
• Pinot's Pallet delivered paint kits to our first responders for their families.
• Many local community members are making masks for our hospital staff.

Our library is an incredible example of an organization pivoting to continue to provide services to the community. In addition to e-books, they offer a great deal of online programming, including virtual storytimes for kids, book contests, art classes, cooking tutorials, and writing instruction, many listed on their Facebook page. Beyond their virtual programming, our library team is utilizing its expertise and equipment to directly help our medical teams: 

"Elmhurst Public Library has put the Makery's MakerBot Replicator+ and Lulzbot Taz 6 3D printers to good use printing face shields and ear guards for Elmhurst Hospital. Both designs have been tested and approved by the National Institute of Health and are being printed per the instructions on the website. The face shields take about 3.5 hours to print and construct, while the ear guards only take 20 minutes. Files for these designs can be found on the NIH website."
From the Elmhurst Public Library Facebook Page

Our community is really coming together, even as we have to physically distance ourselves from each other. 

Here are more ways to be helpful to others while adhering to the stay at home directive.

Donate Funds

If a financial donation is a feasible way for your family to help during these times, here are a few places accepting donations:

• Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Foundation. Purchase a "Thank You" yard sign from Elmhurst Memorial Hospital to show your appreciation for our healthcare professionals or donate to the foundation without the sign. 
• D205 Foundation. Donate to the Elmhurst Community Response Fund, a D205 Foundation philanthropic effort. Proceeds benefit Elmhurst schools and community-based organizations in their efforts to help others during this crisis.
• Elmhurst Yorkfield Food Pantry. The Elmhurst Yorkfield Food Pantry (Facebook) is seeking cash donations for bulk orders to help meet the needs of their quickly-increasing client base. In order to provide a consistent inventory for prepackaged boxes for their clients, cash donations are extremely helpful to this organization. 

Donate to Meal Trains

Meals trains organize food delivery to our hardworking essential workers. Here are a few:

• Meal Train for Bridgeway Senior Living: COVID Response (Nursing/Cleaning/Security staff).
• Meal Train for Elmhurst Hospital COVID Unit.
• Meal Train for Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Emergency Department Staff.

Contact Donations@EEHealth.org to find out about other Elmhurst Memorial Hospital department meal train needs. Visit the Meal Train website to learn about how to start a meal train. 

Connect

Reach out to those who could use a lift in their spirits. 

• Thank our first responders through the Operation Gratitude website. The organization provides direction for what to include in thank you notes and how to get them to the right people. 
• Elmhurst Extended Care welcomes email greetings for their residents. Send emails or pictures of handwritten cards, letters or pictures to cgawryla@eeccmail.com. Thanks for this tip, Elmhurst Public Library team!
• Sedgebrook Retirement Community also welcomes email greetings for their residents. Send emails or pictures of handwritten cards, letters or pictures to RGpenpals@yahoo.com.

Make Facemasks

With the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) recent recommendation that we wear cloth face coverings in public settings, making and donating cloth face masks is a great way to help. Here are a few resources we found for making and donating face masks:

• Elmhurst Memorial Hospital. 
• CDC. 
• We Need Masks. 

Give Blood

Elmhurst Memorial Hospital suggests visiting the Versiti website to learn about opportunities to safely donate blood. Two upcoming blood drives near Elmhurst:

• Saturday, April 11, 9 am - 2 pm, Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Commun Community Room, 305 W Jackson Ave., Naperville.
• Wednesday, April 15, 10 am - 3 pm, Morton Arboretum Thornhill Education Centers, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle.

Volunteer

The following volunteer opportunities may involve contact with others. Please contact these organizations to find out if the volunteer role is a good fit for your current healthcare situation. 

• DuPage Senior Citizens Council - deliver meals to seniors in DuPage County.
• Tri-Town YMCA - deliver meals to school children - coordinated with Villa Park School District.
• Elmhurst Yorkfield Food Pantry - various opportunities.

Donate Supplies

The following organizations are requesting a variety of supplies for the people they serve. A few of these items are listed below, but please follow the links to review their full lists of needed items. 

• DuPage Pads. The DuPage Pads' full list includes canned meals, men's boxers, shampoo, and Easy Mac.
• Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities' full list includes individual serving sizes snacks, cookies, fruit, and bottled water.
• The Serenity House is requesting sealed sandwiches and prepared meals for their counseling center residents.

Support Small Business Owners and Employees

Elmhurst's small business owners and their employees need community support. Community members are collecting donations for small business owners and their employees who are not earning their usual income. Other businesses are hoping to continue to do business via curbside and delivery services. Review these links for ways you can help.  

• The City of Elmhurst has created a thorough guide of restaurants providing curbside and delivery services in the Elmhurst area. 
• Several local businesses, including Maxine and Hazel, joined together to host a virtual boutique crawl on April 11 with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the D205 Foundation's COVID Response Fund. We'll be watching these businesses for future virtual crawls.
• One of the many fundraisers set up by community members to help support businesses and their employees when they are not able to operate is one set up by to help the employees of Elmhurst's JMC Barbershop. Please share additional fundraising efforts for other local businesses and their employees. 
• Simple Ways to Help Your Local Businesses, a blog post by a local business owner, provides tips on ways to help business owners, including buying gift cards from local businesses and giving them to essential workers as thank you gifts, reviewing businesses online, and sharing social media posts.

Be Creative

We hear about more and more creative ways to help from our clients, friends, and family every day.

• Check-in with friends and family by phone, video calls, emails, and texts. 
• Create videos with your special skills or talents and share them with friends and family via social media or email. Read a story, put on a performance, do a science experiment, put on a play, or find another way to share your talents and entertain others.
  • We were impressed by the live Instagram performances the York Amateur Musician Club put on April 9. Follow them at @YorkAlbumProject on Instagram to catch their next live show. 
  • York Community High School alum Grant Wiersum, a COVID researcher at Northwestern University, posts a video diary about his experiences on YouTube. 
• Participate in the City of Elmhurst's #elmhurststayshome initiative, brought to you by The City of Elmhurst, Elmhurst Park District, Elmhurst School District 205, Elmhurst Public Library, and Elmhurst College. Here are the details:

"We’re calling all residents to get creative! Send us your pictures and videos on how you and your families are staying positive and having fun through the State’s "Stay at Home Order". We will collect this content through the month of April, and feature it on our website and social pages. Some of the submissions may also make a debut in the next City of Elmhurst Front Porch Newsletter."

This is far from an exhaustive list of ways to help. What have we missed? Please share your ideas and resources on our Facebook page or by emailing us at info@lwreedy.com. If there's any way we can be of help to you and your family, please reach out to your LW Reedy Real Estate agent. Let's work together while we stay at home.