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The Coronavirus is happening to everyone across the world. Everyone’s daily lives are being altered by the virus.

Throughout the world, people remain on lockdowns or stay at home orders. Borders, schools, restaurants, and many businesses are closed. Economies are shutting down.

Unemployment rates are high. People are fearful of their own and their loved ones’ health. Healthcare and essential workers are working copious amounts of hours to keep our society and world afloat.

This time can be scary and unsettling for many people because the degree of uncertainty apparent is foreign to us. 

With the prolific amount of uncertainty, people can find commonalities. We are all humans living and trying to just keep hanging in there through these times.

People around the world have united to support and help one another. Despite the different statuses that people hold, people have found ways to connect and help. 

People who are strangers to one another have reached out a helping hand to communities. There have been many uplifting stories that have emerged that emphasize the goodness in this world despite the current circumstances. 

The Coronavirus has proven that solidarity, generosity, and helping out are contagious forces that bind humans together.

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1. Boy Scout 3-D Printed Earguards for Healthcare Workers

Healthcare workers are heroes. They have been working countless hours and long shifts to help treat people during this pandemic. Healthcare workers have to wear protective gear like masks, gloves, and gowns to keep themselves protected from the contagious virus. 

People around the world now have also been advised to wear masks in public as a safety measure. As a result, masks have been a liability due to their demand.

Healthcare workers spend their whole days wearing masks. After a result, they end up their days with facial bruises or cuts on their ears due to the pressure of the protective gear.

A Canadian 13-year-old boy scout decided that he wanted to help health workers. He designed ear guards that could be made with his 3-d printer.

The guard connects to the masks of healthcare workers. The guard elevates the masks so that it does not touch healthcare workers’ ears, therefore alleviating cuts. This boy scout has made 1,300 ear guards that he has donated to local healthcare workers. 

His mother made a post on social media that went viral. This post contained what the boy scout was doing and gave access to anyone on how to make and replicate these guards. After this viral attention, an additional 2,000 guards were made and donated to Canadian hospitals for healthcare workers to wear. Healthcare workers have expressed gratitude for this boy scout giving back to them generously.

2. High Schooler Makes Coronavirus Tracking Website

There has been a copious amount of news about the Coronavirus on every platform possible. Oftentimes, this serves as overwhelming to a majority of people.

How do people know which articles to look at? What sources are the most credible and least biased? What are the real statistics and updates of the pandemic? Is the information accurate? 

A seventeen-year-old recognized these concerns and decided to make a website. The website, Ncov2019.live, aims to track and update viewers on Coronavirus news. The site is coded as a place to put all of the Coronavirus information together in an accessible and accurate way.

First, it tracks data from various sources. These sources include the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and health departments in one’s geographic location.

Second, the site aims to avoid misinformation. It updates automatically every ten minutes on facts including confirmed cases, deaths, people recovered, and countries where Coronavirus is confirmed. This site has been viewed by millions of people.

The seventeen-year-old often works six hours a day on his site and has been commended on all of his work. He has given back to the community by giving people consistent and up to date information.

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3. Tyler Perry Pays For Seniors’ Groceries

Senior citizens and people who are immunocompromised are at a higher risk of contracting the Coronavirus. Many grocery stores have recognized the danger and they have implemented an hour where only seniors can shop before the store opens to the public.  

Tyler Perry took it upon himself to pay for the groceries of seniors in Atlanta and New Orleans. He paid for groceries at 44 Krogers and 29 Winn-Dixie overall in these two locations. Atlanta and New Orleans hold significance to the actor’s life.

He both started his career and grew up in the locations Atlanta and New Orleans respectively. 

It was reported that Perry also contributed $21,000 in tips to out of work servers in Atlanta. Many people have tweeted about Perry’s gracious contribution. They have expressed a copious amount of gratitude for his generosity of giving back to themselves, family members, and their respective communities.

4. Teacher in the UK Walks 5 Miles to Deliver Students Free Meals

The Coronavirus has significantly highlighted the inequalities apparent within the food system in place. Many families are struggling to feed themselves and in particular their children. 

Many children depend on free lunches or meal plans in schools to have their meals. Additionally, many food banks are having difficulty balancing their supply with the demand of people who need food. 

Food banks only have so much food and right now fewer people are donating due to financial constraints. Further, more people are demanding food besides people who already had been doing so due to cut hours of employment and more family financial obligations. 

A teacher in the UK has recognized this dilemma. To ensure that his students get their meals, he walks five miles a day to deliver free meals at their homes. The students come from low-income with minimal resources. They would go hungry without the support of the teacher.

Many of the parents of these students are essential workers who are out of the house for many hours. Delivering the meals meant that these children were granted daily with proper nutrition and that they were able to stay inside. Additionally, the teacher was able to check on these students’ wellbeing from afar to maintain social distancing measures. 

This teacher stressed the importance of taking care of all children even if they are not physically at school. His actions highlighted the importance of ensuring child safety for students of various upbringings. This teacher gave back to his students in a way that ensured proper health and safety recommendations.

5. Anonymous Donor Donates Gift Cards to All Citizens of Iowan Town

Smaller towns in the United States have been having trouble fueling their local economies. These towns only have so many jobs that are essential due to the lack of shops. In one of the small Iowa towns, an anonymous donor decided to donate gift cards to all 549 residents in this town. 

In this specific town, there is one grocery store and two food places. The anonymous donor divided evenly the amount of money in gift cards between the three stores. 

The goal of this was to help fuel the local economy, precisely by contributing $82,350  spent amongst the 1,647 gift cards distributed. Each household received $150 in gift cards with a note saying that it was not a scam. 

The note also said if the household did not want the cards they could call the city hall to pass them along to others in need. The gift cards fostered a sense of giving back because 50 families gave them back for families more in need.

The gift cards inspired the citizens of this town to make a difference and help their community. They expressed extreme gratitude for the anonymous donor as well.

Good news during the pandemic is contagious but often overlooked. Often, the media tends to focus on the negatives of the pandemic. Of course, the severity of this pandemic is not one to be downplayed. Life as we know it is halted right now and people are falling ill. However, it is also imperative to recognize that there are still positives happening frequently in the world around us today. 

This helps unifies us and reminds us that there is, in fact, a light at the end of the tunnel. It is extremely uplifting and inspiring to hear how people can largely impact the lives of strangers. It is also important to note that these people did these acts just out of the goodness of their hearts. 

With the uncertainty of the Coronavirus, it is important to take care of oneself, others, and communities. I challenge all of you here to do something that makes you feel good and to do something generous.

So what are you waiting for? How can YOU make a difference TODAY? How will you give back? Look around and you will see that there is a lot you can do.

Alyssa Klier