5 Ways to Thank Essential Workers While Staying Home

These days, we're all flooded with gratitude for the millions of essential workers in this country—nurses, doctors, janitors, pharmacists, grocery store employees, delivery workers, postal workers, truck drivers, policemen and women, firefighters, and so many more—who do so much to keep us safe and protected amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The best way to show your gratitude? Stay at home as much as possible to slow the spread of the virus and relieve the overtaxed healthcare system. Looking for other great ways to show your gratitude while you remain at home? Read on for five amazing ways to show your appreciation for essential workers.

1. Support the Red Cross.

By helping the Red Cross, you're in turn helping hospital workers all over the country continue to do their noble work. Whether you donate blood or make a financial gift, there are several ways you can help the Red Cross continue to support our country's emergency relief efforts. If you've fully recovered from coronavirus, you may also be eligible to donate plasma to help coronavirus patients. Learn more here.

2. Donate personal protective equipment (PPE).

A few short weeks ago, we had never heard of this acronym, now we feel like we see it several times a day. Per Real Simple, you can give or make PPE through GetUsPPE.org, which can also connect you with a local hospital or a healthcare worker through their Mask Match program.

3. Donate to Direct Relief.

Direct Relief is working overtime to "get protective gear and critical care medications to as many health workers as possible, as quickly as possible, with emergency deliveries leaving daily for medical facilities across the U.S." You can make a donation here.

4. Make a sign expressing your gratitude.

Simple gestures make a difference. As lifestyle website Simple Most put it in a recent article by Kate Emswiler, "It’s easy to create a sign of thanks and tape it up in your window or post it on your lawn for medical staff and other essential workers to see during their commute. It costs almost nothing and could brighten the day for someone who sees a lot of darkness right now."

5. Join or spearhead a mutual aid network.

As we recently learned from a blog post on supporting your community right now from Talkspace, a digital therapy platform, these grassroots organizations are of paramount importance right now. "Mutual aid networks are usually not NGOs, and they are not charitable organizations....Currently, many mutual aid networks are focused on pooling money for folks who have lost jobs, redistributing groceries to neighbors in need, checking in on vulnerable neighbors, or providing collective services like childcare or grocery delivery," writes Reina Gattuso. For mutual aid opportunities in your location, check this directory from ItsGoingDown.org here.

Share with us: How have you been offering your thanks for the inspiring men and women on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis?