Community care kits 'door dashed' to area service providers (8 photos)

The COVID-19 pandemic has made life more challenging for everyone, but once again, it has proved to bring the community closer together. This past weekend, Plan A Algoma hand-delivered community care kits to organizations around the city.

Lisa Collins, director of operations at Plan A Algoma, co-ordinated the event and prepared each kit. She and Frank Meraglia, director of education and information systems, went out and delivered them.

“We put together these community care kits that contained reusable, washable cloth masks, filter inserts, surgical masks, disposable bags to store the masks in, reusable straws, water bottles, hand sanitizer, and a few goodies, and then we went to different organizations where we felt that people might have a hard time being able to acquire enough PPE (personal protective equipment) on their own and we personally delivered them,” Collins said. 

Some of the organizations included Women In Crisis, Soup Kitchen, Beginnings Transition House and The Rainbow Klub. Over 60 community care kits were handed out and tagged with a note saying: "You have been Door Dashed! Stay safe courtesy of Plan A Algoma.”

“Plan A Algoma definitely is a strong supporter of keeping Algoma safe. We want to encourage our community to wear masks for one another and to reach the more vulnerable in our community. We also recently ran an internal campaign called #WhyIWearMyMask. We took pictures of ourselves in our masks holding handmade signs stating why we choose to wear our masks. We all have someone we want to keep safe. We also recognized our front line workers that are masked for up to 12 hours a day. If they can do it then so can we! Kendall Mitchell, our social media coordinator, organized daily posts that really sparked a trend,” Collins said. 

“It’s very important to us to continuously give back to our community,” said Sheri-Ann Morin, owner of Plan A Algoma. “We also recognize and appreciate all of the hard work and dedication of our Plan A Algoma front line staff.”

Plan A Algoma provides supplemental staffing (registered practical nurses, registered nurses, personal support workers) to partnered long-term care homes and hospitals so the facilities don’t operate short-staffed. Plan A Algoma is currently providing support service aides to long-term care homes so that families of residents can visit the homes safely.