Video Submitted by Kim Linton

Local business owners are coming together to provide “community kits” to families who need help as a result of the pandemic. We intend to help over 7,500 families in the Tampa Bay Area. Kits will include activities for kids, non-perishable foods, and health & wellness products. So far we’ve partnered with several local businesses (Psalms Brittle Co, Seventh Avenue Apothecary, Tampa Printer, MADE, and more). We’re still looking for product donations as well as donations.

Story Submitted by Suzanne Austin-Hill

A Double Layer Heart-made Cake In our house, my husband is the King of the Kitchen and I am the Royal Taste-tester. On May 1st at the end of our seventh week of isolation (three weeks in Haymarket, VA and the remainder to date here at home in Ruskin, FL), he decided to make a cake from scratch! “NOT a box cake!” as is sometimes said at a church function. The photo shows the beautiful and delicious result – a Vanilla Cream cake with Butter Cream frosting. But, in addition to the blessing of being married to someone loves to cook and clean-up, is the fact that every ingredient for the cake and frosting was purchased for us by our next-door neighbors who have shopped for us every week since our return home.

Video Submitted by Emma Lodgrigue

Hi, I’m Emma I’m 11 and live in Louisiana. I submitted a video in Quarantine Karaoke and someone from this page asked me to submit my video. It’s a parody of Never Enough from The Greatest Showman that I titled “I’ve Had Enough.”

Video Submitted by Katie Welch

I know times can be tough right now. But what I’ve been doing is continuing writing my stories. The good thing about this virus is that I have some time to focus on my writing. Another thing is that I have been creating ideas for new YouTube videos. Like the current one, I’m getting a lot of videos together of other people singing the song Tomorrow from Annie with me.

Video Submitted by Stephanie Hulbert

Video Submitted by Lauren Butterfield

Story Submitted by Lori Smith

Five Sentence story on what it’s like to Shelter-in-place in a Pandemic

  1. I watch the news and see the death numbers rise and the curve ascending.
  2. These four walls entomb me with my idleness.
  3. It’s a waiting game in this prison of laundry, cooking and cleaning, frayed nerves, and to-do list that lies in wait.
  4. I burst outside to walk up the street and hear the birds sing, see the lizards pretending to not be there as I glide by, see the Live Oak leaves sway and feel the mosquitoes bite.
  5. I turn into my garden where bees are pollinating, a pair of cardinals tussle, butterflies flutter through, and the fountain’s trickle soothes and all is well with the world.

Video Submitted by Tom Bronson

Story Submitted by Leslie Farrell

This is not inspirational or anything, but my daughter and husband were here for a few days and we all (with one of my sons and husband) perused our old photo albums. This was joyful, reminiscing. Also, literally smelling the roses in my yard, which thankfully are blooming! And best of all, cleaning out our laundry room has brought me great happiness!! I can walk in there again, hallelujah! Also, just having time to read has been great. Hope you are well!

Story Submitted by Kriste Vogler

The beginning, just a normal photo wall of memories. Day 1. The first crayon drawing is placed, bets were made on how many photos and how long it would take them to notice. Day 2. After FaceTiming with my grandparents (the subjects of my first crayon replica) for an hour near this wall, I decided to add another piece while my parents took a walk. Day 3. Up to three crayon artworks now and still not even a glance. That door on the left? It’s used multiple times a day. Day 4. Thought I would get caught today. I had been posting on Twitter about my progress and my mom chose today to try to start a twitter account to talk to John Krasinski about Some Good News but luckily her account was locked. Day 5. At this point it was getting harder to pick photos I thought weren’t noticeable plus I felt like I smelled like crayons constantly. Day 6. After getting a ton of rain for days I was needing to get sneakier to be able to add these to the wall. I think today I convinced my mom to go for a run before it rained haha. Day 7. Today was a twofer with these classic Christmas photos. At this point, I was starting to think I should have guessed based on weeks and not days for how long it would take them to notice. Day 8. I legit did not think I would get this far, but here we are. Day 9. Only three left to go before my work is complete. I should probably take a moment to apologize to my art teachers. You tried really hard to teach me to draw people, and this is what I’ve done. Day 10. Happy Easter. My mom was nice enough to hide Easter eggs for me, in return, I did this to the photo of her firstborn. Day 11. I almost got caught hanging this one up. Had to hide in the bathroom but they still didn’t notice. Day 11 – 7 hours later. I heard the initial “wait… what” and went running over in time to capture this moment. I like to think they noticed because I replaced my senior photo and of course they look at the picture of their favorite daughter the most right?