Assistance with pet care, child minding and grocery shopping. Tips on food arrival times at local grocery stores. Information about government or community resources. Emotional support through phone calls, texts or video calls.
These are just some of the ways New Westminster residents are offering to help their fellow citizens cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Within a few days of being launched on Facebook, more than 1,000 people had connected with New West Helping Hands.
Diana Radonjic started the New West Helping Hands Facebook page as a way of connecting people who need help to those who are able to assist them.
“We want to inspire the community. We want to reduce panic. We want to remind people to help – help when you can. Worry about yourself, but look around you,” she said. “This isn’t a time for people to fight; it is a time for people to come together.”
Radonjic and her boyfriend own a small New West-based renovation and handyman company, which has a number of elderly clients, some who live alone.
“Just thinking along those lines, and then seeing all these viral videos of people waiting for toilet paper and fighting over supplies – it hurt my heart to see that,” she told the Record. “I started to think; we should be coming together as a community not fighting and being greedy and thinking only of ourselves. I started to think, What can I do to connect the people that can help to the people who need it? The New West community I find is quite tight-knit already. So I thought, let’s do something for New West. Let’s see if we can start something to even get the word out and inspire people to remember what’s important – not that they need 700 rolls of toilet paper.”
Launched March 14, Radonjic was overwhelmed at the response to New West Helping Hands.
“The response has been incredible,” she said. “People are offering time, rides, grocery delivery. Anything you can think of big and small. It’s amazing. I am blown away.”
Radonjic has recruited team leaders in various neighborhoods, who will deliver flyers (not everyone is on Facebook) and connect people. She’s also working to sort the information on the Facebook page so it’s easy for people to access the type of support they need.
“I think it is inspiring people that there is support in the community, even if they are just helping or they don’t need help,” she said of the outpouring of support. “It’s showing people that it isn’t every man for himself, that there is a community around us that can help. There is tons of inspiring posts.”
The New Westminster Police Department forwarded Radonjica link about potential coronavirus scams.
“We are doing our best to research and find information from reliable sources to post,” she said. “I don’t know people that are in this group, I don’t know who they are, I don’t know their backgrounds. We are really just moving forward to trust in people and hope we are all here to do our best.”
Vicky Bull, who has signed up as the Brow of the Hill team lead, is a production coordinator in the film industry.
“I’m on maternity leave,” said Bull, who has a four-month-old daughter. “I’m not doing very much. It’s something I can help with. I like organizing. I can coordinate volunteers, run errands. Luckily I have a very good baby.”
Bull moved to Canada from the United Kingdom three years ago and has lived in New West for most of that time. She’s happy to help out her community.
“I am not in need. I am lucky in the situation I am in. My partner already works from home, and I am on mat leave and I am not affected. I see all the people who are affected. I just want to help,” she said. “I want to be part of a community. I really feel that New West is such an amazing community. I have never lived like this anywhere before. And I can help out, so why shouldn’t I help out?”
For more information on this free community service, join the New West Helping Hands Facebook page or email [email protected].
