Two 20-somethings extend 'invisible hands' in virus outbreak
NEW YORK (AP News) — Liam Elkind’s big heart and his break from college was a highlight of 83-year-old Carol Sterling’s week.
The retired arts administrator has been sheltering at home during the coronavirus outbreak, unable to shop for herself. Yearning for some fresh food, she found the 20-year-old through their synagogue, and soon he showed up at her door with a bag full of salad fixings and oranges.
Elkind, a junior at Yale, and a friend, Simone Policano, amassed 1,300 volunteers in 72 hours to deliver groceries and medicine to older New Yorkers and other vulnerable people. They call themselves Invisible Hands, and they do something else in the process — provide human contact and comfort, at a safe distance, of course.
On delivery day Tuesday, Elkind and Sterling met for the first time over her paper bag of groceries outside her 15th-floor apartment on the Upper West Side. It was a moment of “tikkun olam” between the two congregants of the progressive and service-minded Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
The Hebrew for “world repair” is a phrase synonymous with the notion of social action.
“It’s neighbor to neighbor,” Sterling said. “A crisis like this often brings out the very best.”
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https://apnews.com/bda9c1ed0f8e10742ad2feabb2d52aa2
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