During these challenging times, a lot of us may be wondering how we can take care of our communities. As employees of an organization that was founded on the principle of neighbor helping neighbor, Cambia employees have found unique ways to volunteer their time to help support the communities we serve in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Check Out the Stories from some of our Cambia Volunteers:
Hearing that a lack of culturally appropriate information about COVID-19 is one reason that the virus is disproportionately affecting the Hispanic and Latino communities in Utah, Sebastian De Freitas developed this video for the making personal masks out of bandanas.
Health care workers were left with few options for quick, nutritious meals during their 12+ hour shifts when Seattle went on lockdown. Partnering with UW Medical Centers, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Harborview Medical Center, local restaurant The London Plane stepped up to feed our frontline workers. Cambia employee Wen Chiu who works in communications says she isn’t much of a cook — but lent her PR experience to help bring awareness to this 1,600-meals-a-day donation program orchestrated by her chef husband. With coverage in the Seattle Times, Reuters, and KIRO 7 News, the visibility helped raise over $80,000 for their GoFundMe campaign to continue the program.
When Washington Governor Jay Inslee called for homemade masks to support health care workers on the front lines, Cambia employee Erica Manary’s son rose to that call, tapped into his history as a nurse’s son, his engineering skills, and his 3D printing experience to help. He asked his mom’s nurse friends what they were looking for in personal protective gear and learned that the constant pressure of face protection was causing irritation and pressure sores on the backs of their ears. So he sprang into motion, printing as many ear protectors as his home printer could handle, fulfilling clinician’s orders via social media until his machine failed after two weeks of nonstop production. Erica contacted the 3D printing community, which stepped up to fulfill orders by adding his design to a local database of orderable protection. Once his machine’s repair parts arrive in the mail, Erica’s son said he plans to rejoin the PPE effort.
Annie Hughes and the Clinical Services Leadership Team in Lewiston, ID volunteers to serve Meals on Wheels every Wednesday. They take turns and do the delivery in teams of two to get some team building and given the team is made up primarily of nurses they perform check-ins while delivering meals to ensure the elderly and disabled in their community are supported.
Hearing about dire PPE shortages, Lori Allem and members of her Cambia family came together to sew over 3,000 masks for local nurses, firefighters, EMTs and doctors on the front lines of the health crisis in Utah.
As a volunteer for soup kitchens and food banks in Washington, Karla Molieri Felt recognizes that food is precious and when possible should not be wasted. While isolated at home she develops/promotes ways for fresh produce and breads to be dehydrated, frozen or put into recipes for soups and smoothies as solutions for limiting the waste of such a crucial resource.
We thank all of the volunteers helping one another through these unprecedented times. Learn more about how you can thank a caregiver.
