Creating 'caremongering' connections

In 2001, I had been writing a weekly column in the Gazette for several years, highlighting activities in our community, recounting the highjinks of my family and commenting on things that peaked my interest.

But that column stopped the week Graff kid No. 4 came along, joining three others under the age of six and doubling the chaos. But more significantly, the morning I brought him home from the hospital was one of those days that not only do I remember vividly but is a day that everyone remembers as well: Sept. 11, 2001.

We have entered yet another era that everyone will be talking about for years - if not generations - to come as we deal with the coronavirus Pandemic.

As the local coordinator for the McCook Community Foundation Fund, I have the privilege of working with a numerous organizations, businesses and individuals to make McCook, Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas an even better place to call home.

And thanks to the Gazette, I am resuming my column as part of the foundation fund outreach, hoping to share what is going on in our communities, connect people with resources, to ease fear and answer questions and because I can’t stay serious too long…maybe how to type with a dog under each elbow as I am now.

One of the resources which has been created as a response to the pandemic is a new COVID-19 Response Account through MCFF. The new account allows people to make tax-deductible donations if they have the financial ability to do so. But it is also available for local non-profit organizations and governmental agencies to get funding for programs to help during this crisis.

The fund advisory committee realizes that we all depend on each other and this is an opportunity to help those who are in need. Several programs have been developed to address the crisis, but the fund advisory committee would love to hear additional ideas.

I would also love to hear about ideas that many have already implemented. How have your kids reacted to seeing all the bears in the windows? Do you have enough chalk for the sidewalk drawings with encouraging messages? How are you dealing with those extra pounds thanks to all this homecooking?

Other ideas I have heard range from a “victory garden” where seeds are provided so people can plant their own gardens, creating care bags for everyone in an apartment complex, even online happy hours where everyone sits in front of their screen with a drink in hand.

While we would love to just hit pause and then return to things as they were, this crisis is going to last longer than anyone can imagine so it is an opportunity to re-think how we do things as we move forward.

We are all trying to figure out our role and how we can help in the pandemic. I’ve been involved in a variety of conference calls over the past few weeks including one with David Brooks, the New York Times columnist who visited McCook last March.

Brooks has written several columns on the pandemic already but reminded the dozens on the conference call that we don’t have to be passive recipients, but rather active participants. “This is an opportunity to come out of the crisis better than we were before,” Brooks said.

He also encouraged “caremongering.” Rather than “scaremongering,” people are encouraged to be stewards of their community and promote “caremongering” by connecting and caring for others.

There are so many questions. How do we keep our main streets full when this is over? How can those people and businesses which are able help those which are struggling? How do we keep our community together when we can’t be together?

Ultimately, this crisis has the ability to tear us apart but alternatively, we could use this to pull us together.

My biggest takeaway from the call with David Brooks was the following and a great way to end this column:

Everyone needs to keep taking their Vitamin C: Connecting, Conversing, Caring and being Curious.

— Ronda Graff is grateful to be a mother of 7, is grateful they have room to run outside, and is grateful for a sound-proof door on her home office