By Nickie Snyder, Community Outreach Specialist
Like you, our worlds have been flipped upside down by this pandemic. Here in the Education Foundation office, Dawn, our events coordinator, and I are not even working together in the same location due to social distancing. I’m working from my home while she works out of the home office.
We’re also (potentially) facing the cancellation of many summer events. I was really looking forward to a busy summer of outreach, my first after transitioning from ORTL office manager.
The good news: there is still work we can do. Here are some ideas:
- Like to sew? You can sew sleeves for our 12-week-old fetal models in hopes that Oregon’s fairs will continue. We go through more than 20,000 models per summer! That’s a lot of flannel pockets. Contact us by emailing dawn@ortl.org for details.
We also recommend sewing masks for people in your community who are at-risk or caring for people at-risk. You can find a lot of good tutorials online (tip: elastic is in short supply, so use hair ties or just make fabric ties). - Be active on social media. A lot of America (and the world) is shut inside their homes right now. More people than ever are on the internet. This is a perfect opportunity to compassionately talk about the pro-life issue. (A great place to start is the Oregon Right to Life Facebook page.) Don’t fall into the tunnel vision trap, though (i.e., don’t compare everything to abortion). Multiple things can be wrong at the same time, unfortunately.
- If you are a person of faith, take time to pray for women with unsupported pregnancies who are likely more scared and pressured than ever, frontline healthcare workers, government officials making big choices, patients battling for their lives and their families.
- If able, use your charitable contribution deduction (for non-itemized filers) and donate. Under the stimulus package, the maximum has been raised to $300. The amount you give to ORTLEF can be deducted from your gross income the next time you file taxes.
Stay safe and well.
