Happy National Nurses Day! 9 ways to support Birmingham nurses NOW
Reading time: 6 minutes
Nurses during the calmest of days are incredible, valuable members of our community. But nurses during an international pandemic? Absolute heroes. Let’s show our support to Birmingham nurses at all times, but here are a few ways you can show them some extra love today.
First, a video to warm your heart
It’s #NationalSuperheroDay ! @ChurchsChicken
— Austin Perine (@PresidentPerine) April 29, 2020
& I would like to say Thank You to first responders 4 risking your lives everyday to flatten the #COVID19 curve. We stop by @uabmedicine west to surprise them with lunch. #SGNGlobalCorrespondent @somegoodnews @johnkrasinski RETWEET 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ozLrS9GX3b
1. Get food from local restaurants to healthcare workers via Birmingham Area Meals for Healthcare Workers
Rip Andrews of Marsh, Rickard & Bryan, P.C. and Will Baker of Walker & Dunlop saw a need to provide support to healthcare workers and restaurants during this time and they came together to help meet it.
Here’s how it works:
- A healthcare team leader signs up (24 hours notice, please), requesting the number of meals they would like on a certain date and certain mealtime. A notes section allows healthcare team leaders to supply vital information such as contact details and whether you need the meal at a specific time.
- Birmingham Area Meals for Healthcare Workers finds a local restaurant that can supply the meals and posts the restaurant name and total here.
- A generous sponsor signs up to pay for the meal and provides their contact information. It’s up to the sponsor and restaurant to work out payment and delivery logistics via phone or email. *NOTE: sponsors should only sign up when there is an active healthcare team meal request.
Interested? Sign up now, share with your friends and colleagues, or click here to make a donation.
Restaurants can contact Will Baker at 202.210.1485 or wbaker@walkerdunlop.com if they’re able to provide a requested meal.
2. Become a maker of masks
Bham Face Masks has already distributed at least 63,300 thanks to help from Birmingham volunteers. You can find out how to make and request masks through their site.
3. Give back to Birmingham’s Frontline Heroes with local creatives
Frontline Heroes is a new initiative of Birmingham bloggers and digital creators who are working together to provide meals to healthcare workers fighting the COVID-10 pandemic at Birmingham area hospitals.
Here’s how you can get involved:
- Follow @FrontlineHeroesBham on Instagram.
- Donate via Venmo to @frontlineheroes. All donations go directly toward purchasing meals from Birmingham area restaurant partners.
4. Share these deals with them
Mountain High Outfitters
Treat yo’ self and a Birmingham nurse when you buy a pair of shoes from Mountain High when you use the code GiveOne. If you purchase a pair of four select brands, you can give one to the healthcare work or first responder you choose.
Free coffee at Dunkin’
Those 12-hour shifts don’t fuel themselves, people. Dunkin is offering a free medium hot or iced coffee and donut to all healthcare workers who visit participating locations.
Free meal at Jim ‘N Nicks
Because BBQ makes everything a little better.
5. Show love virtually through this app
Have you heard of the app Props? It was designed by an Alabama engineer and allows you to send frontline workers appreciation. That’s not even the best part though—with each prop they receive, they earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards.
6. Send food to healthcare workers with #BHMCares
This group was started by Dr. Brandon White, a local hospital physician. Here’s BHMCares‘ goal:
“to do everything we can to help our local businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic by supporting them and at the same time helping alleviate some of the stress of the pandemic felt by healthcare workers.”
This is a quick and easy way to feed local healthcare workers from the comfort of your own home. Here’s how to help:
- Visit the BHMCares site
- Call the restaurant featured on their homepage and tell them how much you’d like to donate, then pay over the phone.
- Or, donate directly to the cause via Paypal here.
If you are a restaurant owner or hospital interested in participating email them at info@bhmcares.com and they will try their best to include you.
7. Write a letter to healthcare workers
You might not think a simple handwritten letter makes a difference, but it really does. It’s more intimate than sharing something on social and let’s your favorite nurse know someone’s rooting for them.
Just read this heartwarming ode to essential workers by a Birmingham 6th grader and tell me it doesn’t make you smile.
8. Donate to Frontline Foods Alabama and help feed healthcare workers on the frontlines.
The Frontline Foods Alabama chapter is a 100% volunteer effort led by a group of graduate students from UAB’s Master of Science in Healthcare Administration, Public Health, and Health Informatics.
Their goal is to support healthcare workers on the frontlines and Birmingham’s local restaurant industry, simultaneously. They’ve currently raised more than $28,700 and delivered more than 1,500 meals.
Here’s how to help:
- Donate here to help feed our healthcare heroes.
- Follow them on Instagram for updates.
Are you a medical facility or restaurant interested in partnering with Frontline Foods to receive or donate meals? Sign up below to get involved!
9. Stay home + wear a mask
When I reached out on Facebook looking for ways to support nurses a got an overwhelming response from nurses requesting two things: stay home and wear a mask. It’s the best way to stop the spread of COVID-19, and keep our healthcare workers from becoming overwhelmed and infected.
- 3 ways to make a no-sew face mask on the fly using household objects
- Where can people acquire homemade cloth face masks in Birmingham? We have answers.
Thank you to our health care heroes today, and every day! Share your stories with us on social @bhamnow.
