Hamilton 6th grader collecting masks for hospitals
Some of us are content to rant and rave while banging away on a keyboard. Heck, some of us are even paid for it.
But a smaller percentage of us are not content to rant and rave while typing away with three fingers. Some of us, in fact, don’t even rant and rave.
Some of us just do.
Kamryn Mooney is one of those doers.
She, along with so many of us, was in shock when she heard stories of doctors and nurses and other health professionals being without the basic safety tools while working. To not have gloves, masks, goggles … it’s mindbending. This is America. We’re not supposed to be seeing pictures like I bet you have on social media - of nurses wrapped in black garbage bags.
It’s shameful. It’s a disgrace. And it makes for good “shaking your fist at the world” copy.
Well, Mooney isn’t shaking her fist. She’s shaking the trees, collecting masks, goggles, and any other medical safety equipment she could get her hands on. She’ll be sharing her bounty with area hospitals.
Oh yeah: Mooney is a 6th grader at Grice Middle School in Hamilton.
“The reason I started this idea is because I noticed doctors and nurses had a lack of supplies, so I wanted to try and collect for them so they can have protection while working,” Kamryn told me. “I feel like I’m helping and I know that doing this will help people get better, and will give doctors and nurses less chance of catching this disease.”
Kamryn wants to be a doctor specifically, a pediatrician - when she gets older, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say her call for masks is her first case as a doctor. I mean, this goes on the resume.
Of course, Kamryn, being a
6th grader, needs a little help in this endeavor, which is where her mom, Kelly, comes in.
“People can contact me at kellymooney328@gmail.com if they have any supplies they’d like to donate,” she said. “They can contact us, leave them on their porch, we’ll come collect them, no contact.”
As of this writing, Kamryn has collect 35 masks and three pairs of goggles; here’s hoping after everyone shares this on their Facebook
feed - in between fist-shaking posts, naturally - that number blossoms to dozens, even hundreds.
So far, Kamryn says people who have donated include someone who works in a retail store and picked a few off before they hit the shelves, a man with asthma who saw fit to donate a few, and a bunch of people who simply had them lying around their house for painting jobs never started (or finished).
Depending on the need, Kelly said her daughter also might be dropping some off at rehab centers and the like, as the shortage seems to be everywhere.
“I really can’t believe it,” Kelly said. “You’d figure there’d be some kind of reserve, you’d think they’d have something set up for something like this.”
You would.
But incredibly, that just doesn’t seem to have been the case.
“I want to try and prevent stuff like this when I’m older,” Kamryn said. “Prevent the shortage, make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“Paging Dr. Mooney” has such a nice ring to it, don’t it just?