2020 Hometown Heroes

2020 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 14, 2020 Page 169 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. “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. Flossies delivered to the Logan Count Dispatch CONTINUED u