by Ella Wisely | staff writer

A community should come together and help those in need or for pure enjoyment. Since quarantine started, there has been some opportunities to help around the house or give to local organizations. 

“First I have been trying to help my mom with her home business. My parents had to close their other businesses so I’ve been trying to help them out as much as possible. I also took a job at a local business because the owner lost a lot of her staff when the social distancing order was put in place. Another thing I’ve done is make masks to donate to an organization that gives necessities to the San Antonio homeless community. The latest thing I’ve done with the help of donations from people in the community and my parents is create little care packages for the emergency room nurses at North Central Baptist Hospital,” said Paola Lambert. 

Ever since the school has been officially closed for the rest of the semester, figuring out how to still do things virtually can be difficult to do. Teachers are doing a bunch by themselves and help from students, if possible, can help develop more ideas that a teacher may not on their own. 

“I’ve helped the cheer team by planning the virtual spring show, as well as helping my family and friends by writing what I like to call quarantine mail! I have sent out letters to my friends to let them know that we can still have fun even during this hard time,” said Campbell Lewis. 

Since teachers don’t always have that extra help available all of the time, they do a bunch on their own. They try their best to offer as much as possible considering they are pretty much just as new to distance learning as the students are. 

“My teachers have been a great help with school work, as they host review zooms pretty periodically and always do anything they can to help their students. My parents have also been a great help in helping me get all my school work organized because sometimes it’s challenging to remember all that you have to do in one week,” Lambert said.  

Even before quarantine was enforced, there were so many volunteer opportunities to take on. Many kids who enjoy participating in giving back to others in need, might not be able to continually help during this time but once quarantine is pretty much lifted, those opportunities might be easier to obtain again. 

In the past I have done a lot of volunteer work with the cheer program at my school and my church. When quarantine is over I hope to continue these things until I go to college! I always try to stay positive and look at the brighter side of things,” Lewis said. 

Having siblings or relatives that might not live in your area can be tough because during this time, you might want to spend time with those and since staying inside has been heavily encouraged, traveling hasn’t been such a great option. 

“Both of my siblings are older than me and live in California. There’s not really anything I personally can do to help them except give them emotional support and reassurance. I have been trying to talk to them as much as possible and not only does that help them it helps me too because even before this all happened I missed them a lot but now I miss them more than ever. My sister is planning on coming down for the summer since her summer semester got cancelled for school,” Lambert said. 

While this virus has been affecting almost everyone around the world, trying your best to come together and unite as a community to do everything you can to stay away and help this virus go away is a great thing to do. Following the rules and being there for people in time of need is always good. 

“Some simple ways you could help others is just by staying in touch with people. I know it seems silly but all of us are feeling the same right now, lonely, and anxious about what the future looks like but reaching out to people and even just conversing with them about anything at all can help distract them from all this chaos. You could also get in touch with local organizations and see what they are doing to help people being affected by the virus the most and see what you can do to help as well. I know the food bank has and is looking for volunteers to help pass out food to people in need,” Lambert said.