The unlikely suspect: COVID-19 boosts empathy, collaboration in Vaughan

'COVID-19 has impacted our lives but there are many positive changes that are coming in society'

Yorkregion.com
June 2, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

The Vaughan community is proving the days of self-preservation --when COVID-19 exacerbated fears and people raced to hoard toilet paper and bleach --may be behind us.

Instead, the city is experiencing a great show of empathy from local individuals, organizations and businesses that are doing their best to use their time and resources creatively to help others.

One of these good Samaritans is the owner of the Vaughan-based Hi-Tech EDM, Darren Carroll, who has long been in the business of manufacturing parts, with the lion’s share going to the auto industry and aerospace.

Carroll never thought he would ever use his leftover material to make face shields.

He started by donating 800 face shields to Vaughan’s Mackenzie Health. Next, he ramped up his production to completely finish as much of the leftover material as he could to donate protective equipment to factory workers in Bradford.

Now, Carroll has his sights set on helping Windsor, Ont.

“I am sending about 50 to 100 face shields to a friend of mine in Windsor,” Carroll said. This is after his friend, a support worker at a nursing home there, expressed concern over the shortage of personal protective equipment.

The community’s generosity, however, doesn’t end there.

Other businesses, such as Alectra and York University, have donated masks and even youth groups have leapt into action.

On May 26, Vaughan’s Liberal MP Francesco Sorbara tweeted his “huge thank you” to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association for their “generous donation” of face shields to Villa Leonardo Gambin after 10 people in the long-term care home died of COVID-19.

But that’s not all. Vaughan has also witnessed businesses retooling their operations and donating hand sanitizers to seniors.

Even better, it’s now experiencing unprecedented partnerships and collaboration between organizations.

“COVID-19 has impacted our lives but there are many positive changes that are coming in society,” Aslam Daud, chair of Humanity First, a food bank in Vaughan. “We are seeing more partnership, more collaboration, more efficiency. So, this (teamwork) has happened, and I’m very happy to see that the organizations are working together in good spirit.”

Daud mentioned collaboration between United Way, York Region Food Network, food pantries in Richmond Hill and the Vaughan Food Bank, among others, and said these groups get together every Friday to help one another.

“We all get together on a regular basis and strategize and figure out how we can meet the needs of another,” he said.

For instance, if one place has an excess amount of rice, “where their clients don’t need,” the organization can funnel it to another group that needs it.

Also, during the month of Ramadan, Humanity First received a much-needed $120,000 financial boost, “which includes both grants and donations,” Daud said.

“The need is still there and we are barely surviving on a weekly basis,” he said, amid an increase in the need for more food as many people have lost their jobs amid the pandemic.

Another individual who is helping others is Anna Tran, a Vaughan resident and graduating student from McMaster University.

Backed by her two friends, Mindy Lu and Ayesha Hassan, Tran launched an initiative on March 29 to help Canadian students in Grades 1-12 access free online tutoring to help ease the transition to online learning during the pandemic.

The result is a whopping number of more than 850 volunteers, including “established educators” and people from as far as the Philippines and Nigeria, to tutor almost 190 students nationwide.

“Even though we do have a continuation for the summer in terms of tutoring, we were thinking of establishing some sort of summer activities as well, because we know that a lot of summer camps have been cancelled,” Tran said, adding they will draw from their pool of talented volunteers to have kids drawing or singing along online, “to sort of fill in the gaps that usually summer camps fill.”

Tran’s initiative falls under the Parsec Youth Network (PYN), a small non-profit Tran co-founded with Vaughan Coun. Mario Ferri in 2015. The student-led organization is entirely dependent on volunteers and was originally named the Vaughan Youth Network.

So far, PYN has also found new partners. It’s collaborating with the Hamilton Health Sciences to offer “free tutoring services to all health-care workers” and has a new partnership with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Community Partnerships.

“So, we actually have some of their (U of T) volunteers coming in to help us out, not just in a tutoring capacity, but also the ambassadors. So, they’re going to be working with outreach and marketing and those sorts of things with us,” Tran said. “So, I have seen quite a bit of interest in terms of charitable work that’s been going on around.”