Tuesday, March 17, 2020

New Roosevelt Island Resident Asks How To Help Community During Coronavirus Health Emergency, Any Ideas? - Gov Cuomo Quotes FDR "News Is Going To Get Worse Before It Gets Better And 2nd Known Roosevelt Island Community Member Tests Positive For Coronavirus

A new Roosevelt Island resident asks what she can do to help the Roosevelt Island community during this Coronavirus health emergency:
I am a newer local RI resident and wondering if there is anything I can do to help our community in these strange and crazy times!

I would not even know where to begin myself, so I was curious do you know of any groups organizing ways to help the local people or businesses in need? If so could you help connect me?

I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home... if there is something I can do to help someone in a tougher position than me (help elderly get the groceries they need, help our very few local restaurants provide to-go meals for families that need the extra help with kids being home all day, tutoring.. etc)

I figure whoever runs this blog is much more in touch with the community than I am so wanted to put it out there!

Thank you and hope to help in some way, however big or small!
Do you know of any opportunities to help on Roosevelt Island? I understand some Rivecross residents are offering help to those in their building that may need it. Any other Roosevelt Island buildings doing the same? Probably best to organize by building or even your own floor.

Here's some tips on how to organize.

The Rivercross Co-op Board of Directors sent an email to their residents informing that:
.... We are aware of one person in the builidng who has tested positive for the virus. That family is and has been following all CDC recommended protocols to best protect them and others for quite some time (over 14 days)....

This is the second known positive Coronavirus test for a Roosevelt Island community member - the first being a PS/IS 217 parent living in Queens.

NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo reports the way to help is to:
Stay Home, Stop The Spread,  Save Lives, Flatten The Curve
and quotes from our Island's namesake, Franklin D Roosevelt:

Here's Coronavirus briefing from Governor Cuomo today



and full transcript including this excerpt:
... Life has turned upside down, it's just turned upside down. Remember those snow globes when you were a kid and you shook the globe and the snow went all over and the whole picture changed as soon as you picked up and shook that snow globe? Somebody picked up our country and just shook it and turned it upside down. And it's all chaotic and things are flying all over. And there's new information and there's misinformation. And people don't know what to do and businesses are closing and the rules change every minute. And can I go out, can I not go out, how do I get the virus, how do I not get the virus. And now I'm at home and I'm stuck at home and the kids are at home. And then there's a whole component to this, don't touch anyone. Don't hug, don't kiss. We're human being - that interaction is so important to us, that emotional affirmation is so important to us. And now you have all those weighty decisions - should I go out, should I not go out? Is this safe for my kids? Is this not safe for my kids? I'm stuck in my house.

I've used my experience just as a metaphor to communicate and relate. Having the kids in the house sounds great, having the kids in the house, yay the kids are in the house. I remember when my kids were young, I was divorced, my kids were three girls, they were six and seven and eight-years-old. Six and seven and eight-years-old in a small apartment in Manhattan, that's a lot of fun and then that gets old very fast. Right? The claustrophobia just sets in, it sets in for the kids and it set in for me. What I would do then is I would go to my mother and father's apartment, which was also in Manhattan, to get out of my apartment. And I would go to my mother and father's apartment, and they had a little apartment in Manhattan, and my mother was magic with the girls, and she would play with them and she could play with them all day. My mother's pure sugar, she's just pure love, my mother. But I'd be there for a couple of hours and I'd be sitting there with my father, we'd be sitting on the couch and we'd watch a ball game. And after a couple of hours, now the kids are running around and the kids are picking up this and they're picking up this and they're picking up his picture frame and my father says, "Put that down, put that down, don't touch that." After a couple of hours my father would say, "I think you have to go to work now pal." I'd say, "No, I don't have to go to work." "No, I think you have to go to work now pal." You know?

Having all the kids in that tight environment, that's very stressful. That's why yesterday we said all the fees on all the parks are waived. Get out of the house, go to a state park, we have beautiful state parks. By the way, traffic is down, put the kids in the car, go to a state park, go to a county park, go to a city park - Shirley Chisholm Park in Brooklyn is beautiful, it's open, it's air, the weather is getting better. Spend the time with the kids.

There's also tension among families. I mentioned my mother who is numerically a senior citizen, although not in her reality. I wanted her to stay home, I want her to be isolated. She's my mom, I want her protected. One of my siblings said, "I want to take mom to my house and we're going to have a party at my house and I want her to see the kids." I said, "That's a mistake. You shouldn't do that. You should let mom stay home. I'm more protected." The sibling was saying, "I want to take mom, get her out of the apartment, it's closer to the kids." I said, "You don't know. All you need is one kid." All day long, all I hear about it is people coming up to me saying I didn't know, but my daughter was with this person. So I can even see the tensions in the families. And that's real too and people should expect that.

And lastly, there is something to this lack of ability to connect. Don't hug, don't kiss, stay six feet away. We are emotional beings and it is important for us, especially at times of fear, times of stress, to feel connected to someone, to feel comforted by someone. I mentioned my daughter. I have not seen my daughter in over two weeks. It breaks my heart. And then this concept of maybe I can't get next to her because of this virus, there is a distance between me and my daughter because of this virus, its saddens me to the core and it frightens me to the core. And I had her on the phone this morning and I said it to her. I just said it to her. I said I can't tell you how hard this is for me not to be able to be with you, not to be able to hold you in my arms, not to be able to kiss you all over your face - which she hates anyway. And that plays out a thousand different ways, you put all of this together - it is a hard time. It is a hard time on every level. It is a frightening time on every level.

At the same, it is this much time. Is it 3 months, is it 6 months, is it 9 months? I don't know but it is this much time. We will get through this much time. Understand what we are dealing with, understand the pressures that we are feeling, but we will get through this much time. Be a little bit more sensitive, understand the stress, understand the fear, be a little bit more loving, a little bit more compassionate, a little bit more comforting, a little bit more cooperative. And we will get through this time.

We will lose people, yes, like we lose people every year with the flu. We are going be challenged and tested. There are going to be periods of chaos, yes. We have been through that before also. But this is all we are talking about and we will learn from it and we will be better prepared the next time because this is not the last time my friends. This has been a growing rate of this emergencies and health situations and storms. But we are going to get through it and we are going to get thought it together. But understand the pressures that everyone is feeling and let's be considerate of those feelings that are now collective and societal.
Full transcript here.
UPDATE 11:15 PM

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 6:09:00 PM

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