Tuesday, March 17, 2020

#CareCardsforCoronaCaregivers: Donate a Gift Card to a Hospital Worker

By Suzanne Ordas Curry

Everyone is starting to realize that we may be in this Covid-19 crisis for quite some time. Some cities have already started shelter-in-place, and more will follow. The safey and security of being at home with your family is nothing to take for granted. For the thousands of essential workers -. healthcare, first responders, those along the food supply chain, manufacturing - they cannot work from home,

Hospitals are especially hard hit. I happen to live in one of the epicenters, Bergen County NJ. One of our hospitals, Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ has been hard-hit with novel corona virus patients and they have over a half dozen people on ventilators. No one hearing the news these days can avoid hearing how our medical system will be overstressed. And this is just one of them, other hospitals in this county are also starting to get overwhelmed.

In many areas, it already is, in ways we don't realize. Hospitals are having to provide child care and meals. All those functions in the hospital that have a usual workload are finding themselves tasked with doing more, just to keep up. And we've all heard about the shortage of protective gear.

If you would like to do something to help out hospital workers, consider thanking them with a gift card. They can use the gift card to purchase meals in the hospital, outside the hospital (supporting local businesses) or other items. 

Most hospitals have a foundation. Upon speaking to a representative at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, NJ, she said they already have a gift card program in place and can easily purchase and disseminate gift cards for their workers and volunteers. 

Think about how easy it is to donate $5 or $10 dollars to a corona virus fighter on the front line to let them know they are appreciated. Please use the hashtag #CareCardsforCoronaCaregivers in the message box.

Here is the link for donating to
Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck. 


You can also donate through Facebook:


If you would like to donate to your local hospital, or any you know are being stressed with #Covid-19 patients, just donate to their foundation and specify it is for giftcards. I am sure the good people at all these foundations will fulfill your request.



Start Your Own Fundraiser

You can also start your own fundraiser for your local hospital with these steps:

1. Find out if they have a foundation.

2. Call up or email. Tell them you would like to donate money for gift cards for the COVID-19 workers, staff, cleaning people, cafeteria workers, child care support and anyone else. Some hospitals may already have a gift card program. Ask if they want money so they can purchase gift cards. They can also be e-mailed gift cards by people. (I would not suggest physical gift cards because they will need to be disinfected.) Tell the Foundation an easy way to do it is to use the money to purchase E-gift cards and then have the cards emailed to the employees. No touching involved!

3. Get the link for the donations to the hospital. You can paste the link directly into any social media that you are on so the money goes straight to them. Make sure the donors use the hashtag #CareCardsforCoronaCaregivers

4. You can also set up a FB fundraiser. It's easiest to see if the foundation (non-profit) is already listed with FB. Then you can set up a Facebook fundraiser for the non-profit. It is more steps to create your own fundraiser, and there are tax implications, so see if you can create one directly for the foundation.

5. Good luck. Spread the word.


 Other Hospitals

Update: Here is a list of some of the other hospitals in the NY/NJ area that are providing care but pretty much every hospital will be taking care of Covid-19 patients as time goes on. I've also included a few in other cities, but if you can't find the one you want, just google the name of the hospital with the word "Foundation" after it.

Englewood Hospital, NJ:
 https://support.englewoodhospitalfoundation.org/

 Hackensack Hospital NJ: 
https://secure2.convio.net/humc/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20052a?df_id=1600&mfc_pref=T&1600.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=F2D00F38BD9AFEA407777EBB6189D014

Mt. Sinai Hospital, NYC:
http://www.mountsinaifoundation.org/en/donation

NY Presybterian, NYC:
https://give.nyp.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app30040a?idb=1110510222&DONATION_LEVEL_ID_SELECTED=1&df_id=2193&mfc_pref=T&2193.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=E9A9B390C4B337E131A20A87F4ECF30D&idb=0

Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, San Franciso, CA:
https://donate.saintfrancisfoundation.org/

Harborview Medical Center, Seattle WA:
https://www.acceleratemed.org/share-your-story/

And make sure you use the hashtag #CareCardsforCoronaCaregivers 
Let's get this viral!!


Photos Courtesy Holy Name Medical Center Facebook Page