Community kindness and a healthy dose of Motherly Love

I feel very helpless in my ability to help others as we got sick after my husband returned from a work trip to Germany. Unable to get tested we are 2 days away from our 2 weeks self-isolation and so far Matthew hasn’t had any symptoms. Until this is over we’re not allowing anyone in our house except the 3 of us, not even my older son as he’s still got to go to work, it seems every business can get through a loophole of being essential. I have been using Facebook to ask if people need anything, I also reached out to the families at school. I will check on my elderly neighbors at the weekend when I am able to leave the house again!

Sarah Knowles, 2020 Wisconsin Mother of the Year.

I am feeling guilty in that my husband and I are self-quarantined since we had air traveled a little over a week ago. With my husband having pulmonary fibrosis, I am being extra protective of him and the coming and going to and from our house. Since there are so many if not all the schools in our state of South Dakota being closed, parents are needing to homeschool. After having been in education for 41 years and being a craft lover, I had a lot of school type of stuff accumulated. Thus my husband, Don, and I did pare down my accumulation and took a single road trip to drop off supplies for 5 of our grandchildren and any other young mom/dad who needed school type materials for their homeschooling. To avoid any contact, we had to drop things off on the deck or garage and then just showed the moms and children what was in the boxes. They were all excited.

Susan Olson, 2020 South Dakota Mother of the Year.

I have a son with rare disease which suppresses his immune system. Although I would love to be out there helping deliver meals to our students at our school that would be jeopardizing his health. He his deveolpmentally delayed and now I’m not only mom, I’m full time teacher for him. It has been an amazing experience seeing his love for learning in that light. We started a “Tyler’s Travels” similar to a “Flat Stanley adventure”. We are asking people to print off his Tyler travel paper and take pictures of where you are in quarintine and something you may be doing. We will be making a book of all the adventures!!

Lisa Wilson, 2020 New York Mother of the Year.

I have not done anything fancy. I continued volunteering at my son’s school until it was closed, which in our case the schools closed two weeks after other neighborhood schools had already closed. A few people who perform domestic tasks for my home, we have helped them by paying them their regular pay and not using their services. We have also continued to pay small business extra-curricular activity providers, despite the shut down to support small businesses. Also, as have many other families we chose not to stock up our home with supplies and goods, rather we remain calm and not panic. Women who I routinely help (who are DV victims), I call them on a regular basis and help them walk through the impact of the pandemic, on top of their difficulties. Really just helping them stay calm and put together. Guiding them to respond to everything as appropriately as possible, for their own sanity and the sanity of their children.

Arti Ahuja, 2020 Washington Mother of the Year.

We have reached out to our community during this time of need. The district food trucks in our community didn’t have the agility to get up and running quickly so there were several days where children in low income areas were without food give the shut down of the districts and how quickly it happened. We were able to get our community engaged and delivered over 2,500 bags of food to children in two of our school districts. We handled the weekends as well as days during the week that the food trucks couldn’t deliver. To see the kids run up to the trucks and cars from our gym and karate families that were volunteering their time… it was amazing. They opened the bags that everyone packed for them… and were grateful. It was humbling. Our children helped with bagging the food and delivery. So did many other families in our boxing gym and karate school. I couldn’t be more proud to see a community come together.

Stephanie Preece, 2020 Delaware Mother of the Year

We have been very busy here in South Park, Pennsylvania. I have worked very hard converting my garage into a food pantry. We have been delivering boxes of groceries and toilet paper to families in need due to this crisis. We have also been working with friends to make prepared meals three days a week that we are delivering to the elderly and others at high-risk. It started with us making pancakes and sandwiches at a friend’s pizza shop, and it has since grown to a much larger operation.

Sara Oliphant, 2020 Pennsylvania Mother of the Year.

Through my FIT4MOM business I am offering not only fitness classes for moms virtually, but also play groups, mom hang outs, lunch & learn opportunities with other local businesses. I’ve been doing this in Portland (well, typically in person!) for the past 7 years, so am pretty known. I recently did this quick news segment for local station KATU about ways kids & parents can stay active from home.

Megan Caldwell, 2020 Oregon Mother of the Year.

My son and I are slowly getting into our new routine with homeschooling. I am very fortunate that most of my work was not effected as I work from home, but moms across the country are facing immense difficulties with job loss and child care arrangements. Luke and I are participating in a pandemic brown bag lunch drive. We are preparing bagged lunches every weekend for the homeless on skid row in Los Angeles. As a result of the corona virus crisis, many food pantries across the city are experiencing a shortage with their food supply. There is a wonderful group of activist moms and women in LA who are coordinating these efforts for us to come together and get the lunches to the organizations who are handing them out on skid row.

Simona Grace, 2020 California Mother of the Year