Opinion: My Open Letter to the WCPSS School Board. Dr. Sallie Permar
“I am a pediatric infectious disease physician, virologist, immunologist, vaccinologist, and parent, previously at Duke and now the Dept Chair of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Weill Cornell Med School/NewYork-Presbyterian. I have a child who remains in Wake Co schools until the end of this school year., and I am writing to speak out for the children under your care.”
Sallie R. Permar, MD, PhD | Duke School of Medicine
Dear Wake County Public School System School Board,
I am a pediatric infectious disease physician, virologist, immunologist, vaccinologist, and parent, previously at Duke and now the Dept Chair of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Weill Cornell Med School/NewYork-Presbyterian. I have a child who remains in Wake Co schools until the end of this school year., and I am writing to speak out for the children under your care.
My new role has given me a new vantage point of the crisis that has been created by keeping schools closed – a tidal wave of children requiring hospitalization for mental health crises that fill our ERs because the inpatient units are full, an obesity epidemic unrestrained, children with pre-existing conditions who have lost fitness and strength and worsened their disease, and child maltreatment that is not being detected until it is too late. And that is not even addressing the education gap that has become a chasm. We are creating an unhealthy and undereducated generation out of fears for that are now largely invalidated by data – infection control strategies can prevent transmission of CoV in congregate settings for kids, strategies that also work for the new CoV variants.
We lost precious time in the fall keeping kids almost completely virtual before the holiday surge, but during this time the data was collected that secondary transmission in group settings for children can be prevented. This work even preceded availability of vaccines. Per the current Plan B schedule, my 4th grader will only go to school 5 days out of the next 2 months. That is not an intervention that will reverse the trends mentioned above. Vaccines are here, and surely we are just a couple weeks away from all teachers being able to access vaccines – and I feel confident they will still protect against disease and death even with the new variants circulating.
I urge the board to put in place Plan A – before we cannot reverse this child wellbeing crisis. Moreover, mitigation measures need to be planned now (summer school) to make up for lost time.
Thank you,
Sallie Permar
February 7, 2021
Community Navigators Community Builders 'Corona Relief Crew' Awarded $10,000 by Lead4Change for Fighting the Isolation of the Quarantine
A group of ten Garner high school students donated over 300 care packages to local organizations to address the needs of the homeless and those in assisted living facilities during the COVID-19 crisis. They planned and implemented their project, the Corona Relief Crew, as a part of their involvement in the local organization Community Navigators Community Builders and were awarded a $10,000 grant by the Lead4Change Student Leadership Program for their efforts.
Corona Relief Crew members Andrew Lacewell and Genesis Moragne gathered supplies wrote letters to fight the loneliness of quarantine.
BY MARGARET DAMGHANI
A group of ten Garner high school students donated over 300 care packages to local organizations to address the needs of the homeless and those in assisted living facilities during the COVID-19 crisis. They planned and implemented their project, the Corona Relief Crew, as a part of their involvement in the local organization Community Navigators Community Builders and were awarded a $10,000 grant by the Lead4Change Student Leadership Program for their efforts.
Donations, supplies or drop off locations were supplied by Hudson Hardware, Target, Little Details Boutique, Office Depot, Papa John’s, Red Robin, Revonnae Hayes, members of First Presbyterian Church in Garner, and members of Poplar Springs Christian Church. David Williams contributed photography and videography.
The packages contained commonly needed items like soap, socks, washcloths and non-perishable foods, but the students added extras to help people cope with the current pandemic.
You’re not alone in quarantine
“We decided that everyone is at home alone, having to stay in the quarantine and distance themselves from everyone else. We thought about the people that don’t really get thought about a lot,” said Genesis Moragne, a rising senior at North Wake College and Career Academy. “We said, ‘Why don’t we think about them and let them know that we have not forgotten about them.’”
To that end, the care packages were made to include not only currently in-demand hygiene items like masks and hand sanitizer, but also handmade notes for those in assisted living and a letter of encouragement to be read to recipients of the items at the men’s shelter in downtown Raleigh.
“The donation was good but a lot of volunteers aren’t coming in. They aren’t getting a smiling face. With this letter they could know that folks really didn’t forget them,” Moragne said. Two of the students wrote the letter personally.
Real World Projects in the Community
The Community Navigators Community Builders group was founded in 2017 by Cleopatra Lacewell to provide opportunities for character development and leadership skills in middle and high school students. She guided her students through the curriculum created by Lead4Change, and their project was ranked in the top five out of over 30 other projects that were also recognized.
“Our CBCN program is much like the Lead4Change program. We give them projects to do and this was one of them. Our organization is basically showing them project based learning opportunities,” Lacewell said. “We try to bridge the gap between school and community.”
The Lead4Change Student Leadership Program is a national program that began in 2012 with a fully developed curriculum aimed at teaching students about themselves as well as leadership skills, said program manager Linda Spahr.
“They were a great example of how the program really comes to life. What the students walk away with is a real change in themselves. They really go from teenagers to knowing how to lead. To all come together as leaders in their own talent area and make change happen. They can really talk about that in job interviews and on college applications,” Spahr said.
The program gave out over $150,000 in grants for the academic year and has about 11,000 registered student groups that can submit projects for challenges twice a year.
Responsibility and Results
Each student was responsible for a certain job related to the completion of the project, with some students garnering donations, finding organizations to give to or marketing the project. The students ran their collection event on June 5 and 6 in the Office Depot parking lot, and also garnered donations to purchase supplies from local businesses. They also practiced skills like giving elevator pitches as they developed their project.
In all, 90 care packages were given to the Men’s Shelter, 10 to Haven House Wrenn House, 75 to Bella Rose Nursing Home and 132 to Pruitt Health Center.
Many local organizations donated money or items, and at the collection event several individuals came back to donate more than once.
“We had great support from the community,” Lacewell said. “Because we are fairly new, we’ve been trying to grow it. This year we have 19 kids in our program, just trying to teach them to give back. The whole premise is growing and developing community leaders.”
More information on Community Navigators Community Builders can be found at www.communitynavigatorscommunitybuilders.org.
Garner Businesses and Organizations During COVID-19: The Community is in Your Hands
The decision for a small business owner or someone who runs an organization comes down to assessing risk, something good entrepreneurs are already good at. Only in this situation those risk assessments extend beyond their doors and into the entire community.
As the state and county loosen restrictions over the coming weeks and months, the responsibility shifts to individual private business owners and organizations to make decisions on what’s safe and what is actually good for business.
They are now responsible for the safety of their customers and, by definition, the community.
They are even responsible for protecting their mindful and cautious patron from others that do not have a belief in COVID-19 and/or don’t care to take precautions.
So, the question business owners and organizations need to ask is, which customers do you need to accommodate to make your business safe and thus viable?
It’s an important question because with the right answer 1) the right customers will bring in more customers and clients and 2) the wrong customers will increase the likelihood of exposure in your business establishment and increase the probability and frequency of required temporary shut-downs because of localized quarantines.
A Matter of Believing and Caring
Customers and clients are going to fall somewhere within these two categories of believing and caring, ranked from best for business to worst for business as restrictions loosen.
Believe it vs Don’t Believe it: This comes down to a simple determination of whether or not someone believes COVID-19 is a threat at all or if it is even real. It is a measure of someone’s thoughts and opinions about the COVID-19 as a pandemic.
Care/Caution vs Don’t Care: Care is measured by someone’s willingness to take preventative measures and precautions either for themselves or, more importantly, for others. It is a measure of their actions, their actual behavior, relative their thoughts and beliefs.
The Best and Worst Customers for Your Business During COVID-19
The Community is in Your Hands Now
So, the decision for a small business owner or someone who runs an organization comes down to assessing risk, something good entrepreneurs are already good at. Only in this situation those risk assessments extend beyond their doors and into the entire community.
Now they have to ask, what role will my business play in protecting the most vulnerable members of our community against people who just don’t care?
Garner Retirees to the Rescue; Making Masks Makes a Difference in Local COVID-19 Battle
“We are just using what technology skills that we know how to do to meet the need. We’re all stuck at home with nothing to do. It kind of adds a little power to what we can do in our retirement,” said Nancy Cope, a retired educator. “We do not sell them, and we do not have any for sale. Our focus is healthcare and frontline workers like the police and the fire department.”
BY MARGARET DAMGHANI
An unexpected endeavor started in mid-March with an email sent to the students of a sewing class at Saint Andrews United Methodist Church looking for anyone interested in fulfilling a request for homemade cloth masks needed by a medical center in Elizabeth City.
In the weeks since then, an impromptu team of about 20 people, mostly residents of the Village at Aversboro retirement community, have contributed to the production and delivery of 721 masks to organizations near and far. After that first email and the accompanying pattern, the idea to create masks was put out through the Village’s messenger service.
“We are just using what technology skills that we know how to do to meet the need. We’re all stuck at home with nothing to do. It kind of adds a little power to what we can do in our retirement,” said Nancy Cope, a retired educator. “We do not sell them, and we do not have any for sale. Our focus is healthcare and frontline workers like the police and the fire department.”
It kind of adds a little power to what we can do in our retirement.”
- Nancy Cope
There are at least six sewers making two different types of masks, along with pattern cutters, a quality control person to snip the threads and insert filters, others help to prepare coffee filters to improve the masks efficacy, a courier, and those that donated materials all contributing to the team of people that have now been working at it for nearly a month.
“We have a system going. We have baskets on our porches, and the deliveries come in Ziploc bags and we leave them in the baskets for several hours, and some of us spray the bags before bringing it in the house,” Cope said.
They only exchange fabric, finished masks, and other supplies through the baskets and are adhering strictly to social distancing guidelines to protect everyone involved, including not accepting donations from the public.
“It really has been neat, the sharing, the community,” said Mary Gail Ellington, a retired nurse and Garner native. She, like many of the sewers, has spent full days sewing.
“It’s a need, and the love of Christ I have, to be his hands.”
- Mary Gail Ellington
The recipients range from Garner’s local first responders to numerous medical offices, hospitals and assisted living facilities, and even a few to caterers and individuals handing out meals to school children that are missing school lunches. The Garner police received 70 masks total, including 50 for their officers and 20 in smaller child sizes, made in kid-friendly fabrics as requested.
The sewers have gone to great care to pick out fabrics suited to the recipients, such as special fabric for the fire department and the cheerful ones for nurses and police officers.
The supplies to create this volume of masks come from a variety of fortuitous circumstances. Spearheaders Cope and Ellington both run Bless This Child programs at their churches𑁋Saint Andrews United and Plymouth Church, where Ellington’s son is a pastor.
The programs provide homemade clothing to children in the U.S and during mission trips abroad, and thus there was already a network of people who, as luck would have it, have an abundance of scraps saved that are too small to do much else with.
Garner Officers Cameron Driver and PL Kevin Pena sporting their Garner grown face masks.
One current issue for anyone producing masks is obtaining enough elastic, which has become nearly impossible to find locally and across the country. Ellington just so happened to have an abundance of elastic she had held onto for years, ever since a local store changed hands, enabling her to give away 10 yards or so to others.
“‘Okay God, you showed me what I’m going to do with that elastic.’” Ellington said. She had recently been wondering if she should just throw it out after holding onto it for so long. “That first week when everybody was sewing, I think I’m the only one in Garner that had elastic.”
The group also received more than one donation from a quilting store in Angier, Sew There. Owner Bonnie Glover has been giving sewers between 10 and 20 yards of elastic at a time, according to Cope.
“Our neighbors were a tremendous source, and the lady at the quilt store (Sew There), Bonnie (Glover), has been very helpful,”
- Nancy Cope
“Our neighbors were a tremendous source, and the lady at the quilt store, Bonnie, has been very helpful,” Cope said. “Just about everybody in this neighborhood found elastic at their house, so we had many sources of elastic...One of our sewers brought me 288 yards of elastic. 288 yards for me and 288 yards for her. I’ve already shared quite a bit of it.”
Jana Soward with Johnston County Pediatrics was one of the first to receive a Garner grown mask.
The spirit of sharing seems to permeate everything the neighbors do, and the requests have not slowed down since they started, though they managed to complete all of the larger requests just before Easter Sunday. They have even begun sending masks by mail to family members and have a list of at-risk residents of their community that may need a mask for medical appointments who will get extra.
Cope said they will continue “As long as we’ve got energy and threads and elastic. Every time we think we’ve finished our list, somebody else calls.”