How Stanislaus County businesses are helping communities during coronavirus pandemic
Let’s be honest, we’re all pretty exhausted right now — stressed, scared, maybe a little mad, maybe a lot sad.
The COVID-19 outbreak has made everyday, mundane tasks suddenly a lot more difficult and potentially dangerous, like shopping for groceries and greeting your neighbors. Those still working at essential businesses worry they might get sick. Those not working worry they won’t be able to pay their bills. And the great aimless unknowing of when it will all end weighs heavily on us all.
But, the good news is there is still good news, both in the world (because the coronavirus crisis is worldwide, after all) and especially locally. People helping people, businesses helping businesses — that’s the way we survive and thrive through these most trying of times.
So here are just a handful of ways businesses large and small in our community are helping. These are by no means the only people stepping up in our community. So many are doing so much, and often in stoic silence. We thank them all for everything they have done and are doing. This is a small selection to hopefully inspire others to do what they can.
If you’re confused about what is open and what isn’t open during the coronavirus shutdowns, Opportunity Stanislaus is here to help. They’ve started putting balloons in front of open businesses in the county. So far, more than 100 businesses have been festooned with big red-white-and-blue balloon pillars in Modesto, Turlock and beyond.
Besides increasing the visibility for open businesses, this gesture is helping to support Modesto business My Little Balloon Company, which is creating and delivering the colorful arrangements to open businesses. In these sheltering-in-place days, there aren’t too many parties anymore — at least not how we used to have them. To instead use balloons to help essential businesses seems like exactly the kind of celebrating we should be doing right now.
It’s tough enough for independently owned restaurants and cafes out there without things going wrong with the equipment. So things seemed bleak last week when Modesto’s Queen Bean Coffee House put out a desperate call because their espresso machine had broken.
Like many other restaurants in town, it remains open for takeout only. But a coffee machine for a coffee house is crucial. So they put up a GoFundMe campaign to pay for a replacement, in hopes of staying afloat. Customers, fans and generous strangers pitched in over $2,000 in less than 24 hours. This is the kind of big-hearted and open-walleted generosity that will help your favorite places get through these terrible times, and remain open when the good times return.
Pizza helps valley during the pandemic
Even without equipment breakdowns, many local restaurants are just struggling to stay open and continue to attract customers. In Turlock, this month marks the one-year anniversary of Willie’s Pizza & Wings. The locally owned pizza shop remains open, though with less than half the staff. But instead of holding a fundraiser for her shop, owner Patricia Ashman has started doing once-weekly fundraisers for local charity groups.
They started last week, and were able to donate $300 to the United Samaritans Foundation in Turlock. This Wednesday, they’re having another one-day fundraiser where 25% of all online pizza orders – basically whatever profit they make minus ingredients and labor costs; be sure to note it is for the fundraiser in the special instructions – will go toward Westside Ministries.
Their goal is to help nonprofits and groups helping people get through the stay-at-home orders with food and other services. Next week, they will move their fundraiser day permanently to Tuesdays, and will be donating to the Warrior Food Pantry at California State University, Stanislaus. Ashman welcomes other organizations helping people with COVID-19-related issues to reach out for fundraising help.
“When this happened, you feel so bad for yourself at first,” Ashman said. “But my business is still open, and I’m still healthy. Even if losing a little bit, we’re doing better than others who are losing so much. This is something positive for us to do at a time when there’s not a lot of positive things happening.”
Maybe it’s something about the universal appeal of pizza, but they’re not the only Central Valley business slinging pies with a generous spirit. Pizza Guys Modesto and Turlock franchise owner David Gambrel gave out 2,000 free pizzas to health care workers at Kaiser facilities in Modesto last week.
The California-based pizza chain has been giving out pizzas to hospital and medical staff across the state, pulling up in a large trailer packed with pies at each site. The reason, Gambrel said, couldn’t be simpler.
“These guys are out there protecting us, working hard every day,” he said. “My business is very fortunate to be thriving, and I want to give back to the community.”
Many, many other restaurants have also reached out to help feed medical staff, grocery workers and more in the region. Food, that most essential of comforts, continues to bridge our differences and make even better neighbors of us all.
Turlock company makes intubation boxes
Still, it’s not just restaurants affected by closures and shutdowns in the region. And it’s not just restaurants reaching out for help or to give help. Longtime Turlock business Paul’s Glass Company had to close its showroom and now is primarily doing residential emergency and repair work in addition to their ongoing commercial projects. But when Emanuel Medical Center staff reached out last month with an unusual order of plexiglass, owner Patrick Jensen inquired.
They wanted to make their own intubation box, which shields medical staff from the virus while connecting patients to life-saving ventilators and other respiratory equipment. So Jensen and his staff took the idea and ran with it, custom designing three boxes for the hospital in a little over three hours the same day.
They have since made a dozen different boxes for three regional hospitals: Emanuel in Turlock, and Doctors in Modesto and Manteca. They have all been custom orders, handmade in eight different sizes. They’ve also fielded requests from as far away as Los Angeles, Sacramento and Sonora.
It’s not what Jensen and his staff thought they’d be doing during the COVID-19 global pandemic, but it’s what he thinks more businesses and people should be doing to help get everyone through this unprecedented challenge.
“I think that this situation has exposed some hidden talents,” Jensen said. “I know of people making face masks. I know of people making face shields. I know of people making small clamps for the backs of face masks to make them more comfortable for healthcare workers to wear. Where we are making intubation cubes. If anybody has that product, that talent, now is the time to share it. It will take a village to beat this thing, and we are the village.”
And, amid all of the chaos and confusion, let’s also remember to take a little joy. Modesto and Central Valley singers and DJs, who saw all their venues and subsequent paychecks close because of coronavirus, are still making music for us — albeit virtually now.
Modesto musicians play from home
ModestoView.com, Modesto’s alt-monthly entertainment publication, has been helping by streaming musicians on its Facebook page regularly. The same artists you would see out every week and weekend singing at your favorite restaurant or bar are now playing live from their living rooms.
Chris Murphy, ModestoView’s founder and publisher and all-around Modesto’s biggest cheerleader, said the effort is a way to help local musicians make up a little of the income they’ve lost because there’s no place to play anymore. During each virtual concert, artists put up their Venmo or Paypal account information, and everyone is encouraged to generously pass the hat. They’ve got shows scheduled pretty much daily through April, so check them out and chip in a few (or more than a few) bucks.
And they’re not the only ones providing a soundtrack for all our self-isolation. There are also folks like Modesto-based DJ Manuel Mejia, who goes by DJ Invisible, and other valley DJs still spinning. Mejia normally works six nights a week at bars like the Tiki and Splash in Modesto and The Grand Cru in Turlock. But now, with those spots all closed or only offering takeout orders, he has gotten creative and continued to spin music for people from his home.
He has also teamed with local restaurants, and Modesto’s Studio V pilates center, to provide music for them virtually as well. Hop on his Facebook page around noon most weekdays and you’ll be able to see him at work, making a joyful noise for all of us at home.
“After the first stream, I got so many messages of thank yous,” he said. “It’s been all positive feedback, and so many people have thanked me for bringing normality back into their lives. It’s been nothing but love, and it just fuels me to do it as much as I can during these trying times. I really never knew the impact of music and how it can change someone’s attitude or outlook for the day. My sole purpose was to try to bring and spread some positive vibes through music.”
So whether that’s by feeding people, or entertaining people, or providing critical equipment, we should be inspired to help where we can. We are the village, indeed.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 2:28 PM.
