It's been 3.5 weeks since I dropped 100 of these notes on my block. (Thanks to help from a neighbour since my daughter was sick)

Here's how the neighborhood has stepped up since

I do love my neighbourhood. 1/

The original plan was for every block in the area to get one with the name of a "block captain" on it. We were having trouble finding block captains and since a lot of seniors lived in the hood, we decided not to waste time. 2/

Immediately a neighbour reached out to help. I sent her the file, she printed 200 more and covered our two more blocks. Emails started to come in with more helpers.
I ran out of paper so I posted to the FB group if anyone had any and could save me a subway trip 3/

Very soon, someone reached out and offered to print however many I needed. We estimated 3000 to cover the entire geographical area that was technically "the Annex" but I was worried we wouldn't have enough volunteers to do it all. She printed 2000 more and dropped it off 4/

So 2000 people in the hood got a leaflet with my contact in case they needed help. I started getting emails that would make you cry.
Seniors who were "ok for now" were grateful they had a backup options. Seniors who didn't need help, but offered financial contributions 5/

Most importantly, the number of people stepping up to help was incredible. Our neighbourhood spreadsheet now has a list of 90 names of people willing to help at any time.
One person stepped up to be my Man Friday. I can't cope with it all so I forward requests to him 6/

(Actually, more than one person offered, but he was the first). In the last 3.5 weeks, he's been coordinating people who need help and assigning it to helpers.
Last night, someone (I don't know who) dropped off 400 more leaflets to my door. 7/

Tomorrow, more volunteers are going to cover the rest of the hood that hasn't been contacted yet. The best part of all this is knowing how people are stepping up.

I emailed a friend living with his elderly parents just to check in. 8/

He thanked me for the notes and apologized for "not pulling his weight" as if this was a neighbourhood requirement to live here. It warmed my heart that people feel that doing their share really is a civic duty. I told him he was taking care of 2 elderly parents. 9/

He was already pulling his weight.

A woman emailed to tell me how this small gesture reminded her of the war effort and shared her experience of that. She is elderly herself but offered to help financially. This email made me cry. 10/

Another neighbour started making food and distributing it to those who need it. A woman messaged me to offer some hand made face masks to reduce the risks to the volunteers.

11/

During the Residents Association meeting, the communications chair talked about a request for help that went to her that she sent our way. When she followed up, the person told her "within two hours a volunteer called her got her the urine samples to where they needed to go" 12/

She was so impressed and grateful to this network of volunteers that sprung up pretty much overnight.

This all made me realize our shortcomings in our highly connected world. 13/

We are can call our friends on the other side of the planet in 5 seconds but we barely know our neighbours.
30 years ago, I would have looked up the white pages if I was worried about Mrs. Smith down the street. I don't have that as a resource anymore. 14/

I have no list of vulnerable neighbours so we are trying to create one of sorts. There will be gaps of course, but we now have volunteers who are willing to do wellness checks on a daily basis.
This neighbourhood has stepped up. 15/

Emergency planners really need to look at locals, residents associations, etc as part of their emergency mgmt solutions. You have boots on the ground and clearly people willing to step up. All this energy is out there. People aren't just looking for the helpers, 16/

most people want to BE a helper.

Harness that energy. Because this is how we will get through this. We will get through. Not all of us will go unscathed, but getting through this will take people helping each other out. 17/

We were sold a basket of good about the greatness of individualism. We see how rampant individualism (ie not feeling like rules apply to you) is rapidly spreading the virus. We call this a society for a reason. We need each other. 18/

Be a helper. And remember that most people want to be a helper too. That's how we will get through this. I am grateful that I live in a neighbourhood where there are so many. /end