Just before most of us were forced by Coronavirus to self quarantine in our homes, some chapters in Nashville, TN, helped families that had lost their homes in the tornados that hit the area on March 2nd-3rd.
“A few of our members were directly impacted,” explained Emily D’Andrea, President of the Nashville-East/Eastwood chapter. “Our community was so amazing — offering free food, supplies and places to stay.
“We wanted to do something that would let us help with our children in tow, so we offered free childcare for families affected by the tornado and those helping them cleaning up,” she continued.
“One of our moms’ husband is the pastor of Hope Church and they opened their doors to house the child care,” she added, noting that they had 20 kids dropped off the first day and all of volunteer slots were filled ahead of time for the week.
“We invited all the area chapters to volunteer,” she explained. “But we were trying to support our Lockeland chapter, since they had the families most affected, so we didn’t ask them to volunteer. Moms from the chapters in Inglewood, Rosebank and Eastwood volunteered. We had 32 volunteers each day for 10 days — close to 200 volunteers total!
“We hosted the childcare in the church nursery, and had three different rooms — 6 weeks to 12 months, 12 months to 4 years, and 5 to 12 years,” Emily said. “All the snacks and activities were donated by moms from the chapter as well.”
The chapter was able to provide the child care for 10 days, before having to stop because of the pandemic.
“We had over 100 kids come through those 10 days and even more volunteers! Thirty-two volunteers each day, for 2-hour increments at a time. Many people volunteered more than one day and it was a huge success!” Emily said.
“So many of the families that used the child care had lost their homes, and had to deal with searching through the rubble for anything that could be salvaged and then dealing with insurance and planning on a new place to live. We were so pleased that we could help them.”
We are, too, Emily! The creativity in how chapters come together to help their communities is truly inspiring!