“Sitting home in Verona, over the past few weeks has left many of us, including myself, to feel helpless in so many ways,” Lisa Szamborski, a 15-year resident of Verona, said by email yesterday. “Last night, while not being able to sleep yet again, I saw a request from a nurse on Facebook, asking for care packages for herself and her colleagues. She explained that some nurses left their homes in other states, and others don’t go home to their families–they sleep at the hospitals and nearby hotels.”
In the morning, Szamborski shared the nurse’s post with her daughters Savannah and Synclaire and, together, they decided to do something to brighten the lives of these frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
Szamborski reached out to Hackensack Meridian Health. “As you can imagine, finding human resources wasn’t easy,” she wrote us, “yet after speaking with so many amazing people, I was finally put in contact with Jane.”
The person that Szamborski reached is part of the COVID-19 command center at the hospital chain, which owns Mountainside Medical Center and many other hospitals, physician offices, rehabilitation facilities and assisted living centers across northern and central New Jersey. “She was so moved when I explained to her that we wanted to put together care packages for the nurses,” Szamborski said. “She gave me a list of items they are looking for at this time, and gave me a contactless drop-off address.”
So now Verona, Szamborski hopes you will step up to help this care package campaign. She and her daughters are hoping to make 50 to 100 bags to drop off. To fill them, she’s looking for the following items:
- Motts Fruit Snacks
- Granola bars
- Lollipops
- Toothbrushes
- Travel-size toothpaste
- Gum
- Bobby pins and hair ties
- Travel-size hand lotion
- Razors/travel-size shaving cream
- Chapstick
If you can donate any of these items, please email Szamborski at [email protected] and she will respond with her address so that you can put them in a container outside her house. If you would like to make a monetary donation instead, Szamborski asks that you use PayPal and send to [email protected].
“My daughters and I are going to begin to color and put positive messages on brown paper bags tonight,” she wrote. “Thank you in advance for your help.”
