Page 31 - Sonoma County Gazette April 2020

Financial Assistance
for Covid-19 Related Lay-Offs
Earth Day Project that you CAN do
while Social Distancing...DO IT BY YOURSELF!
Cleanup our Neighborhoods - One Bag at a Time!
It’s amazing what ONE PERSON can accomplish! You can probably fit ONE BAG of debris in your weekly trashcan for pickup.
That’s what this is all about!
Earth Day is April 22nd
Start any time. Do this anytime you see no one else around! :)
By Jeniffer Wertz
As we all know, this pandemic is causing massive economic difficulties.
While the Lower Russian River Workforce Fund does not have the capacity to help everyone impacted with rent, I’ve been putting together all the ideas and programs I can to try and help assist as many people as we can with our limited budget and small volunteer staff.
If you have been financially impacted please read through all of this information. We are not going to be able to just give everyone enough money, so I am urging you to be proactive at doing what you can to help yourself.
1 - For those who have been paying into unemployment, Google California Employment Development Department Covid-19. They have expanded and expedited some coverage. The sooner you apply, the sooner you start receiving money.
2 - Start calling the companies you pay bills to and ask for reduced or deferred payments due to Coronavirus related lost income. I’ve had very good success with this so far myself. I recommend using on-line chat with Xfinity rather than calling. They are doing deferments, waiving late fees, and offering unlimited data for free for example. I heard even banks are doing this with mortgages, but be prepared to wait on hold a long time (which is likely to get worse the longer you wait to call).
3 - We need some help identifying local employees who have been layed
off due to Covid-19 business closures. If you are a local business owner
or manager (between Forestville and Caz, including Occidental but not Sebastopol) please e-mail me at jwertz.lrrmac@gmail.com and tell me
how many employees you have out of work who may need emergency assistance with food, plus your contact info. We are going to need your help distributing gift cards to your out-of-work employees. If you are a local worker who has been layed off, please give this info to your manager or owner and have them contact me via e-mail.
4 - The Workforce Fund can assist with bus passes for those who need to find a job out of town and do not have transportation. E-mail jwertz@lrrmac@ gmail.com.
5 - While many jobs have been shut down, places like Safeway, Costco, Amazon, and delivery companies are hiring. If you have a license/car, consider signing up for a delivery gig such as Door Dash, Flex Cart, etc. to help you through this.
6 - Help each other if you can. This is a really tough time for a lot of people. Some are in a much better position than others. If you still have a job and are suddenly working a lot of hours, consider helping out your friends and neighbors who just lost theirs again with no notice for about the 3rd time this year during the off-season.
7 - Do everything you can to not get sick or cause someone else to get sick. This is bad enough without that becoming an additional factor.
You will find interesting things to recycle, things that will gross you out...things that night look like someone could use it - yu never know!
Please take it seriously. Intentional ignorance and willful disregard puts you and other people at higher risk. We can’t add having our whole community sick and/or dying to this situation.
Don’t take your kids or go to the grocery store sick for example.
Don’t ignore the social distancing that is being recommended. Do your part to help us all get through this.
“Societies that build resilience do not hide behind a wall
of happy talk or try to minimize the danger. Resilience does not come from mindless optimism, or from people telling one another to be calm amid the turmoil. Resilience is built when people confront a threat realistically, and discover that they
have the resources to cope with it together.” ~ David Brooks, How To Survive The Blitz, The Atlantic, 3/2020
It’s an ADVENTURE in TRASH collection.
And when you have your bag filled up - take a look at the path behind you - LOOK at what YOU DID! Now THAT’S a sense of accomplishment!
Thank you, Nance Jones for this GREAT IDEA!
It’s over ... Measure B “officially” passed :-) :-) :-)
Measure B FINAL result:
“Yes” votes: “No” votes: TOTAL votes:
16,897 68.91% 7,623 31.09 24,520 100.00%
Sonoma County Turnout: 187,208 ballots (66.91% turnout)
4/20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 31