The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Neighbors connect amid pandemic
Weekly gatherings in Ohio offer fellowship, friendship and fun.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Kerry Davis sipped a beer as he stood in his neighbor’s driveway and surveyed the activity surrounding him.
He watched the teenagers playing cornhole on the lawn, the friends sharing dinner from their lawn chairs they’d circled up under a shade tree in the park across the street, the kids playing tag on the corner, a new-to-the-neighborhood couple walking up the street to see what was going on.
And as he thought about the loneliness so many have suffered during the past 18 months of this pandemic, he choked up.
“People are dying for community right now,” said Davis, a pastor with Vineyard Columbus. “In the hysteria and fear, people want to be comforted and they want to be loved.”
And so it is that here, at the corner of Riva Ridge Boulevard and Woodtown Drive in Gahanna’s Bryn Mawr neighborhood, dozens of people have safely visited outside every Thursday night since April. Neighbors get their dinner from a different food truck each week and gather safely for fellowship, friendship and fun.
Here — with Cris Ferrante’s corner home as the touchstone — people have found a way to help ditch their pandemic blues, leave the isolation of their houses, and help the local food-vendor economy in the process.
“It keeps people from hiding in their homes and allows us to keep a sense of community as the pandemic drags on,” said Ferrante, 61, who owns a local dancewear business and has long been known as his neighborhood’s party host. “It’s been a bright spot for all of us in this pandemic.”
So for 20 weeks last summer and fall and since April of this year, the neighborhood invites one food truck and one dessert truck to park on the street in front of a park each Thursday — spread out, of course — with people coming and going over time. The gatherings will go through Oct. 21.
“It’s been something to look forward to each week when there hasn’t been a lot to look forward to,” said Andy Mcpeak, 41, who lives within walking distance in the nearby Rose Run neighborhood, as he sat with his family and friends under that giant shade tree in the park. The three couples and their children were all eating the dinner they’d just bought from the night’s featured food truck, Holy Crepes.
Experts agree on ways to beat pandemic blues
As the pandemic shows few signs of slowing — and as health experts are even suggesting it might even worsen again as we head into the cold of winter — there’s a renewed (or maybe sustained) focus on keeping our spirits up and guarding our mental health.
Experts agree on the basics as good practice: Limit consumption of gloom-and-doom news, exercise and sleep and eat right to protect your body and mind, stay connected to others, and seek help when needed.
The Columbus Dispatch asked a few people to share an activity that has been a saving grace for their mental health in these stressful times — something others might be able to do to help them as well.
“People have even been unable to travel to see their own families,” Ferrante said, “so making plans to do something in your neighborhood and get to know people fills a void of the loneliness.”
When Ed Plunkett needs an escape from pandemic stress, he heads down to the basement of his family’s Westgate, Ohio, home and picks up one of his many guitars.
And with each pluck and strum, he feels a bit more anxiety rush from his brain and a bit more peace slide into his soul.
“Music brings you some joy in some real rough times,” said Plunkett, 57, who works as a library cataloger at Ohio State University in Columbus. “It does heal because there are no real mistakes. Especially if you are just sitting down in the basement jamming away.”