Jackie

Over the past few weeks I have been calling older members of my local community through Cameron Koffman’s campaigns for NY state assembly. He created a way for young, interested high schoolers to easily assist those in our communities who are most vulnerable right now, and made a platform through which I have been making calls and submitting the needs vocalized by the people I reached, wether it be a need for daily lunches delivered to their houses or a grocery run that is unsafe for them to make in the current climate of COVID-19. The task itself, calling numbers and submitting their needs, was minimal, but it provided a community connection that reached far beyond the logistics of groceries and meal plans. Even those who said they were well off without further assistance were eager to start a conversation with a young high school student like myself, and extremely intrigued by the ways in which they, too, could get involved with volunteering.

Often times I participate in service where there is an inherent dynamic of “helper” and “receiver of help”, and for the first time during this pandemic, it feels as if we are all both helping and receiving help. When I asked “how are you managing during this scary time”, I was met with the same question in response. There are many different types of service that resonate with me in a multitude of ways, but reaching out to those in need during the corona virus has reached me on a different, more personal level.