WFWP Hackensack NJ shows love in a tangible way
A recipient of the WFWP goodie bag in NYC
Whenever we think about the state of our nation these days, with widening political divisions and COVID-19 cases rising once more in the United States, it can be all too easy to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by feelings of helplessness. But each and every day is an opportunity to do something good, to spread love and kindness and bring a smile to a stranger’s face. The members of the WFWP chapter in Hackensack, New Jersey, embraced this opportunity and exemplified living by the logic of love through two projects in the month of June.
With a heartfelt desire to show support for the weary and hardworking frontline workers that have been battling COVID-19 for more than three months, WFWP Hackensack thought long and hard about how to help.
We ultimately decided to prepare goodie bags for the staff working in such health facilities to cheer them up and give them some encouragement. We realize it takes a certain bravery to get up every morning and go to work in a place where people are facing serious illness and worse.
Members prepared 20 gift bags to be shared with two organizations: CareOne at Ridgewood Avenue, a senior care facility in New Jersey that has been caring for COVID-19 patients and Gotham Health, which is currently acting as a COVID-19 walk-in testing center in New York City.
In the bags were such items as a bottle of water, three granola bars, nail clippers, hand lotion, Vaseline jars, soap and nail polish. We also added a handwritten thank you card signed by WFWP Hackensack expressing our admiration for taking on this task at a most difficult time.
Arrangements were made to deliver the bags safely during the third weekend in June and they were greeted with warm smiles. WFWP Hackensack gives a big salute to those who are gallantly serving others!
Origami gifts for workers at the Queens Detention Facility
A second project in June was initiated by several WFWP members who wanted to express their concern for workers at the Queens Detention Facility, which is responsible for providing secure care for people awaiting detention hearings. Prisons and detention centers have had some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the country.
WFWP Hackensack members put together lovingly crafted origami gifts. We are grateful to Ms. Michiko Davis for her expertise in this fine Japanese century-old craft!
One of our local members’ sons worked at the Queens facility, so he said he would be able to deliver the gifts.
Update: Unfortunately, the workers were not able to accept our gifts due to prison policy. Instead, we offered them to some hardworking local volunteers, including Dora and Anna, who made hundreds of face masks out of bedsheets and donated them to the Hackensack hospital workers at the height of the pandemic when masks were hard to come by.
