Kindness helps us cope in virus crisis

We call it “Acts of Kindness,” the practice of thinking of others and giving to those less fortunate in times of crisis.

As the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes known as COVID-19 upend our lives, we need a little kindness.

This pandemic is a situation unlike any experienced in our lifetimes. Financial markets are in free fall. Businesses are shutting down, leaving employees out of work and without income.

Schools and day care centers have closed, disrupting the routines for families and making it difficult for health care workers and others on the front lines to work without child care. The elderly who are considered most at risk for serious illness if they contract COVID-19 are urged to stay home, leaving them without services or social contacts.

Staff, owners and servers at bars, restaurants and small locally owned businesses are facing devastating financial hardship as their incomes abruptly came to an end this past week with Gov. Tom Wolf’s order closing all dine-in food and drink establishments and “non-essential” stores and businesses. Takeout and drivethrough business continues at some restaurants.

One of the most difficult realities to grasp is the uncertainty of not knowing when the crisis and shutdowns it has caused will end. Our “new normal” will not last forever, we are reminded, but that is little consolation to those facing the extreme financial hardship that will affect their lives for a very long time.

In the midst of this doom and uncertainty, we are witnessing — as we knew we would — individuals and businesses stepping up to help, giving back to those around them, and keeping a watchful eye on vulnerable neighbors. Some examples: Rocky and Jillian Citrino, the owners of Little Italy and The Pourhouse restaurant in Pottstown, are providing free meals for children. They worked out a deal with their food supplier and are putting together bagged lunches with a snack, a fruit or vegetable and drink and, as kids come to the front door, they add a hot item. They’re giving away about 150 lunches a day from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Pottstown Police Officers Association and restaurant patrons have contributed to help pay for the food. “There are a lot of legit good people out there. It makes me proud to be an American,” Citrino said. “It makes me Pottstown proud,” his wife added.

In Delaware County, Thunderbird II Pizza in Springfield, known for their chicken wings, bought extra chicken from food suppliers and offered it to customers at wholesale prices to overcome food shortages people were experiencing in local grocery stores. “We did it for our neighbors and it felt really good to see the spirit of our friends and customers, those in the neighborhood, who stopped by to take advantage,” said Steve Landers, co-owner. The shop sold 760 pounds of chicken in 30 minutes after announcing the offer on their Facebook page.

We’ve learned of people buying gift cards from local restaurants or small shops so businesses have some income even though they’re closed, of ordering things to be delivered even if the items are not an immediate need, and of churches and synagogues donating to the food pantries and nonprofit agencies whose resources will be taxed in the weeks ahead.

We’ve witnessed individuals give up a case of water that they had to wait for so that someone else wouldn’t have to, and neighbors offering to watch children for those whose jobs require them to be on-site. We see families walking together on trails and sidewalks in conversation — talking, not scrolling through texts — and people calling friends and relatives they may not have connected with in a while.

Good news can’t shore up our finances or become the antidote desperately needed to stop this virus. But it can help us cope. “Social distancing” is not, and cannot be, a distancing within humanity.

Kindness is what keeps us close and moves our communities and our nation forward. Pass it on.