Virginians are getting through quarantine with compassion, creativity, and cutting-edge science.
Teacher Nancy Nesheim of Seven Pines Elementary School in Henrico County. Photo courtesy WTVR CBS 6 News.
Love Parades
Teachers across the Commonwealth visit students—but from a distance.
As school closures under Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order to curb the coronavirus outbreak kept students confined to their homes, many teachers and parents across Virginia got creative, hosting social distancing parades to lift children’s spirits. With playdates and recess a thing of the past, these parades bring a caravan of cheering teachers and friends so admirers can wave back from a safe distance.
Seven Pines principal Terry Mothershead rallied teachers to visit students. Photo courtesy WTVR CBS 6 News.
In Henrico County, just north of Richmond, public school employees decorated their vehicles and made large signs. Seven Pines Elementary principal Terry Mothershead even dressed in a penguin costume as she rallied teachers at an empty DMV parking lot. “I think we are trying to get used to the new normal,” she told local news station WTVR. “We are trying to make the best of a tricky situation.” Music teacher Nancy Nesheim told the network that the chance to see her students after weeks of quarantine was bittersweet, especially because she is planning to retire at the end of the school year. “I didn’t get to tell them bye,” she said.
Teachers at Creighton’s Corner Elementary School in Ashburn also organized a car parade through neighborhoods where students live. “While we’re trying to leverage all of the technology, we have to connect through video and Google Classroom, you really can’t beat a face-to-face smile and wave from your teacher,” PTA president Amanda Dowling told WTOP.
During a car parade in Bristol, teachers from Van Pelt Elementary School called out to their students by name, trying to keep spirits up while they’re apart. “We just decided at the last moment that we wanted to do something for the kids,” teacher Melanie Young told WCYB. “We really miss them and hope they’re doing well.” Zoe Jones, a 5th grader, told a reporter that his teachers’ visit made him feel good, “because they care enough to say, ‘hi,’ not to go about their day and say nothing.”
Far Out
VCU Health launches telehealth program in rural areas to combat COVID-19.
As part of VCU’s telehealth program, first responders correspond with doctors in Richmond to decide if it’s best to transport patients to the hospital or care for them at home.
A pilot program by VCU Health—the first of its kind of Virginia—is helping emergency medical service agencies in rural Essex, Westmoreland, and Richmond counties evaluate patients showing COVID-19 symptoms and discuss the risks and benefits of transporting them to a hospital versus remaining at home. First responders are using telehealth technology, allowing them to communicate in real time with VCU Health emergency medicine physicians who are based in Richmond.
This new technology makes it easier to make decisions rapidly about what is best for the patient, while also lowering the chance of additional exposure and reducing strain on busy EMS agencies and hospitals’ emergency departments. “These efforts will help lessen emergency department surge visit volumes, EMS provider personal protective equipment use, EMS provider exposure time with potential COVID-19 patients, and the time an ambulance is out of service for its community,” says Dr. Harinder Dhindsa, an associate professor and interim chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine in the VCU School of Medicine.
Blake Byrd, assistant chief of Westmoreland EMS, says the pilot program changes the dynamic of rural EMS, which is resource limited and volume heavy. “As an agency that has been exploring telemedicine for some time, this propels us into a platform that allows for direct physicians to consult on the scene with existing infrastructure,” Byrd says.
VCU is considering expanding the program to additional Virginia localities and perhaps even for patients with conditions other than COVID-19.
First Try
UVA joins national trial to test potential COVID-19 medication.
Charlottesville’s UVA Health has joined a national clinical trial testing a potential COVID-19 medication, allowing hospitalized adult patients showing significant symptoms of the lung disease—including difficulty breathing, using supplemental oxygen, or needing a ventilator—to participate.
Participants will be randomly assigned to either receive remdesivir or a placebo intravenously for as long as 10 days. Patients will otherwise receive the current standard of care for their symptoms. UVA physicians will assess trial participants each day for changes in their condition. Trial data from all participating hospitals and an estimated 440 participants worldwide will be combined and analyzed about halfway through the trial’s enrollment period to determine if changes should be made. The trial could be stopped if participants were not benefiting from remdesivir, or it could be changed to add another medication or therapy that could improve participants’ response.
Bowen McCauley Dance Company offers dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease; the usual classes have been moved online during the pandemic. Participants dance seated for safety.
Dance On
Arlington dance company offers free online classes for people with Parkinson’s disease.
Bowen McCauley Dance Company in Arlington provides free weekly Dance for PD classes for people with Parkinson’s disease and their care partners in eight area locations. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, the company transitioned from its nine weekly dance locations to virtual streaming three classes per week. “Our PD dancers already have challenges with social isolation, and the pandemic is certainly a hurdle that we are attempting to address by bringing the classes into their respective homes,” says Helen Chamberlin, BMDC’s executive director.
Dancing is known to improve balance, improve gait, increase endurance, and decrease motor impairment in people suffering from Parkinson’s. It also reduces fatigue, symptoms of depression, and social isolation, resulting in an increase in the number of social activities in which they participate, while diminishing feelings of anger and improving sense of quality of life. The virtual classes focus on seated movements to maintain the participants’ safety.
“We are delighted at the large ‘attendance’ for our online live dance for PD classes,” says BMDC founder Lucy Bowen McCauley. “The camaraderie in the chat before and the lively dancing in our chairs with a wide variety of music is bringing joy to many in this time of uncertainty and isolation.”
People with Parkinson’s Disease and their care partners are welcomed to join BMDC’s free weekly live virtual classes, which are held on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons from 2:30 pm to 4:00 PM. Register by sending an email to [email protected]
Digital Daffodils
Facing cancellation, Garden Club of Virginia members reimagined Daffodil Day 2020.
Constance Owen of The Virginia Beach Garden Club won first place in the photography competition’s “Movement” category with her image of the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Photo courtesy the Garden Club of Virginia.
For Adele Smith and her fellow Garden Club of Virginia members, the news of the forced cancelation of Daffodil Day 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak last month was devastating. “I had been working on it for a year, I put my heart into it,” says Smith, who serves as the event’s chairman. More than 150 exhibitors and contestants were to descend on Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on March 31, some of them coming from as far as Europe, to have their flowers judged.
But then GCV president Jean Gilpin forwarded Smith an email from a club about a virtual photography contest being held in her county. “In a flash of the obvious, Digital Daffodil Day was born,” Smith says. “It was determined that we could produce pictures to show what Daffodil Day would have looked like, but only photography could actually be judged.”
Kathy Wirtala of The Rappahannock Valley Garden Club won first place and the Claire Smithers Mellinger Award in the photography competition’s “Still Life” category for her Dutch Golden Age-style image. Photo courtesy the Garden Club of Virginia.
In the weeks leading up to the event, Smith worked with her photography coordinators to carve out a new concept. “The photographs for the photography event were digitally sent to judges, who awarded ribbons and a trophy, and were then forward to us,” Smith says. Committee chair Janet Hickman used the flowers in her yard to send in pictures of daffodils from the original test collection in 1930 and then another group of daffodils listed from A to Z.
At 2 p.m. on March 31—the exact time Daffodil Day was supposed to open—the event’s website went live, and Daffodil Day 2020 had been saved. Gilpin’s April newsletter announced the link to the club, while GCV staff posted them on GCV Facebook and Twitter and sent links to Lewis Ginter, who shared them with their members.
“The willingness of many creative ladies made it all happen,” Smith says. “They took the idea of Digital Daffodil Day to heart and ran with it, making it a success. I sat back and watched them do their magic.” See the show at GCVirginia.org/DaffodilDay.
Have you witnessed (or participated in) acts of kindness or caring, inspirational moments, creative solutions, or heartwarming connections? Email us at [email protected] (subject line: #sharethegood) and we might share your story.
