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How have we been able to support the broader community at this challenging time? 

• From an organizational standpoint:  Sadly, not much.  However, we are just trying to keep our attorneys up-to-date from a CLE standpoint. We have waived the in-person CLE requirement for this reporting period, and we have had many virtual CLE's already.  Not much from a volunteerism standpoint, yet.  We are trying.  We have reached out to our employees to NEVER be embarrassed to ask for help.  There are many here that would love to help. 
• My church has a very strong community presence, not just from a membership standpoint, but from a community standpoint at large.  We have a large "welfare" program where we grow and raise our own food and through mostly volunteerism we process, package and provide these goods to help many in our community to have what they need.  Our neighborhood has established communications with everyone so that if anyone is in need of anything, they have people, including myself that they can reach out to.  In our community we have a wheat, dairy and many vegetables processing plants where we make pasta, bread, flour, milk, dry milk, canned beans, corn, pretty much you name it, we do it.  It's actually a fun volunteer activity that as a family we've done many times.  Outside of that, there are a handful of families and/or senior citizens in our neighborhood that are in need at times and instead of them needing to get out of the house and put themselves at risk, we generally take good care of them.  Most of their needs are simple and generally are survival needs.  I think generally everyone in our neighborhood has enough TP to last a few months.  I know I do.  Hehe.  Would love to hear how others in their communities are helping.  I love volunteerism!  Which is why I love to volunteer with ILTA. 
• I'm opening a can of wheat and breaking out the grinder ... haven't seen flour on the shelves for weeks. 
• In terms of providing assistance the broader community, I am trying to provide some guidance in getting school children back into formalized education as quickly as possible. I did some work with Save the Children in the past and I know there is a lot of research showing the role that education/schools play in keeping children safe. In the current situation, remote learning can help the both mentally and emotionally, as well as provide a reason to stay home (social distancing).  I don't have a formal role in this but have collected my own thoughts (based on tech experience, some knowledge working with child-based charities and as the father of two teenagers) that I have put down on "paper".  I have shared/discussed these with the leaders in child-based/education charities here with the hope that they can then share (whatever they feel is useful) in discussions with the relevant authorities.  I am not sure what difference it will make in the end, but I know we must act when we have ideas. These actions must however be done with care as the people who are doing work for the greater good at the moment are probably all overworked. We must ensure that our actions don't accidentally end up having a negative impact on them. 

• One firm is donating masks to local hospitals. 
• Hosting trivia nights and other social opportunities. 
• I've been making cotton masks to donate and distribute. I keep a sealed plastic food container with a bunch on my front porch for letter carriers, amazon delivery people, and food delivery people. JoAnn locally (and probably everywhere) is taking donations of masks to pass on to first responders/medical workers. There are dozens of patterns and YouTube videos that show how to make them. I'm not the best at sewing, but they're pretty easy.
  
  #COVID-19