Hope is a precious thing. And in America we have it. We’re seeing evidence of that hope here in Hamilton County every day.
* Hundreds of us are signing up to be pen pals with scores of elderly people in assisted living and nursing homes whose loved ones cannot visit because of the coronavirus outbreak.
* A sewing club in East Ridge has taken up a mask-making project to help protect health workers. Hamilton County Schools has donated 500 surgical masks, more than 150 nebulizer kits, digital thermometers, goggles and sanitizing wipes to Erlanger Health System. The Tennessee Valley Authority is distributing 50,000 N95 masks that were in storage to the seven states in the TVA region for health professionals to use. Likewise, nationally, Apple is donating 9 million masks.
* BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation is giving $3.25 million to a half dozen food banks across the state, including $500,000 to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. The money will help the state’s food relief efforts that had become donation-starved even as coronavirus increased food aid needs. Likewise, The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga – along with partners such as the McKenzie, Maclellan, Benwood, Weldon F. Osborne foundations and Truist – launched a $650,000 community response and resilience fund to benefit coronavirus relief for the Food Bank, the Chattanooga Community Kitchen and Metropolitan Ministries.
* The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will refund campus housing and meal plan costs to students who were forced off campus earlier this month when the university closed and moved classes online. The school also plans to be more flexible with the deadlines for student class withdrawals.