FLAG 2020 – Lincoln, IL makes a big difference for front line workers and local restaurants
 

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[April 23, 2020]    Around our community, we are finding heroes that are working to help diagnose and treat possible cases of corona virus. These are the front line workers of our community and include the doctors and nurses in our local hospital, CNA’s who work in close proximity to patients, those who are caring for our senior populations in assisted living and long term care facilities, the staff at the local health department, our local paramedics, firefighters, and our police officers.

While Logan County is going to probably end up being one of the very lucky counties with very few diagnosed cases, and hopefully no deaths, every time one of these workers comes into contact with a patient or would-be patient, it is running through their minds that this is a person who could have the highly contagious disease.

Whenever a first responder goes to an accident on the highway, there is a chance that the people in the car could not only be injured but also be infected. Every time a patient comes into the emergency room for whatever reason, there is a chance that the virus could become a factor.

For those healthcare workers, and first responders the risk of contracting the virus, and worse yet, the risk of becoming a carrier and spreading the virus has to be heavy on their minds. It has to be a daily stress factor in their lives.

For our local businesses, the stress of what is happening to their business during this time of sheltering in place has to also be a big issue. Statistically, some small businesses will not be able to recover from the forced temporary closures of small retailers and reduced capabilities of small family owned restaurants.



For area eateries, carry out and delivery is still allowed, and most are depending on that business to keep them going until they can once again open up their dining areas. Community members are being encouraged to continue to support those businesses, but for many of our residents, money has become tighter than ever because they too are not working.

In all, this is a recipe for disaster for the local economy.

However, there are people in our community who are working to help both our local eateries and our local first responders. And what they are doing is having some remarkable results.

In Mount Pulaski, Angie Cyrulik learned about a project called FLAG 2020 that was ongoing in the Decatur area. She considered the project and what it was doing for the Decatur community, and decided that it was a project that could possibly be implemented in Logan County. So she took action, and has been amazed by the local response.

FLAG is the “Front Line Appreciation Group.” It first started in Chatham, New Jersey and was implemented by two working moms who felt that the front line workers in their community needed to be shown appreciation with more than just words. With New Jersey being hard hit by the corona virus, they also saw that there were businesses in their community that would cease to exist if someone didn’t do something to help them out.

They put together a fundraiser and a plan. They would seek small monetary donations from the community, pool the cash together and then order carry out meals from local restaurants and deliver those meals to local front line workers. The two were astonished when in the first two weeks they raised more than $75,000 for their project.


Flossies delivered to the Logan Count Dispatch

“We thought this was an amazing way to give back to the community,” said Cyrulik. “So, we created FLAG 2020 - Lincoln, IL. We started the group hoping to raise enough to send some meals to the ALMH Emergency Department, but the community has been very generous, so we are expanding to other places. So far we have delivered to several departments at the hospital, doctor offices, LCPA-paramedics, health department, Emergency Operations Center and Dispatchers. We are currently scheduling deliveries for additional hospital departments, police department, firefighters and pharmacies.”

Cyrulik concluded, “I hope to continue and raise money so we can deliver meals to more locations! All of the front line jobs are important and even though we haven’t reached all locations yet, we want them to know we are thankful for all they do!”

Cyrulik started by setting up a Facebook page and getting the word out about what she wanted to do. She set up a means for folks to make online donations, and provided her home address for those who wanted to mail donations.

The Facebook page went live on April 8th, and in the first two hours she had raised enough money to purchase 80 meals for frontline workers. The first meals were delivered that same night. Cyrulik ordered food from Sorrento’s Pizzeria and had it delivered to the Emergency Department at ALMH.

By Thursday she had enough money for 160 meals and she arranged for food deliveries from Chestnut Family Restaurant on Friday and the Idle Hour in Lincoln on Saturday.

On Easter Sunday, the Chestnut restaurant donated an Easter meal that was also delivered to the Emergency room staff at ALMH.


Peggy's Place delivered to the Logan County Department of Public Health



In that first week, meals were ordered from Chances R, Mama’s Arcade, Rio Grande, and Stuffed Aria Pizza to the Logan County Paramedics, ALMH Acute Care staff, ALMH Plant Operations, Memorial Behavioral Health, the Logan County Department of Public Health and more.

Meals were also donated by local eatery owners such as Peggy’s Place in Lincoln and Farmers Family Restaurant in Mount Pulaski.

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Delivery to Springfield Clinic by Chubby's Bar and Grill

Food was purchased from Daphne’s for the Mental Health Clinicians at Memorial Behavioral Health and from Chubby’s Bar and Grill in Atlanta for staff at Springfield Clinic.



Guest House Coffee and Pastries delivered sweet treats to the pharmacies in Lincoln on the 16th, and the Alley-Bi delivered donated lunch on Tuesday, April 21st to the Laboratory staff at ALMH.

Others who have delivered food include the Blue Dog Inn and Guzzardo’s in Lincoln, the Stag R Inn in Emden and the Pizza Man in Mount Pulaski, and the list continues to grow daily.

 

On her Facebook page, Cyrulik posts thank you notes to each and every donor and has posted a number of photos of folks in the various departments receiving their deliveries.

She is also adding links to the Facebook pages of all the eateries that have participated thus far and encouraging followers to also show their love to those places through purchases for their family meals.

All in all, Cyrulik said that the response was much more than even she could imagine. Her hope had been for a meal or two delivered to ALMH, but with such a huge turnout she is happy to keep up the project and provide as many meals as she has money for to those who do their job daily with little expressed gratitude from the community.

Additionally, she feels that this is a “win-win” project that is helping to sustain our local eateries.



And helpers have come out of the woodwork. Logan County Fair Queen Skye Kretzinger volunteered to bring food to Lincoln from Farmer’s Restaurant. Local small business owner and administrator at Castle Manor, Marcia Cook, delivered treats from Peggy’s Place to Memorial Behavioral Health.



Chris and Amanda Doherty delivered the meal from Chestnut on Good Friday. As they traveled to Lincoln it occurred to them that there could be staff who were observing Lent and would not be able to eat the food provided, so they swung in to Jimmy Johns when they got to town and bought a bag of tuna fish subs for those staff members.

Cyrulik plans to keep the momentum of FLAG 2020 - Lincoln going as long as she has donors, and from the looks of it, that will be quite a while. She is also looking to reach out to more and more restaurants and asks that if any restaurant wants to be a part of the project they can contact her through her Facebook page.

This has been a great movement in our community and sets an example of how one person can set the wheels in motion and then watch it gain momentum and blossom into something that involves the entire community.

If you want to get involved, the best place to start is on FLAG 2020 – Lincoln, IL Facebook page. We encourage you all to log into the page, read the comments from the workers who have received food, look at the number of people who have donated and the see for yourself the magnitude of the impact this is having. You don’t have to donate a lot, that is the whole idea, a little bit from everyone will add up to something big.

We thank Angie for doing this for all our local front-liners and local restaurants. More than likely in their eyes and definitely in ours, she is a hero in her own right.

[Nila Smith]

 

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