One of the lovely things about living in a small community is that, often, when things go bad, someone steps up to save the day. Such was the case this past week at Children’s House. Someone broke into the building last week. The staff noticed first thing in the morning, but did not see anything missing until a few days later when they went to restock the toilet paper and baby wipes. Dang. The closet (they had just restocked) was empty. Megan Neal (yup, our Megan, whose children go to Children’s House) offered to make a run to the store for supplies. But Island Market was completely out of TP–the coronavirus fueled hoarding hit hard. Fortunately, Island Hardware still had a good supply. Even better, when they heard what had happened, they donated three Costco sized packages of TP, so much that Megan almost could not fit them in her car! Thank you, Island Hardware!
It is a sweet story, except for the burglary part. If you happen to see someone selling TP on Buy Sell Trade, you may want to let the sheriff know.
The Corona virus is definitely having an impact on this community even before anyone has tested positively. We are seeing snow birds return months early to escape the crowds in Seattle. The run on supplies has emptied shelves at Island Market and the Coop, many meetings are being canceled or postponed and then there is the stock market. Plenty of panic before the storm.
As a community, we have a great opportunity to manage this situation in a level headed and healthy way. Keep washing your hands (#20secondsisalongtime), hone your social distancing skills (no hand shaking) and stop paying attention to social media. San Juan County is updating daily their website daily both with news about the Island and with links to good resources nationwide. https://www.sanjuanco.com/1668/2019-Novel-Coronavirus
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead this weekend!
Hilary