Whatcom community helpers add hotline to lend a hand to those affected by coronavirus
The Whatcom County COVID-19 Community Helpers group continues to grow in size and available services, with a new hotline established to help those affected by the coronavirus.
The group was founded about four weeks ago with a Facebook group and has grown exponentially. Sandi Heinrich founded the group and expected about 200 people to join; it surpassed 8,000 members last week and has a group set up for every school district in Whatcom County.
“The way the hotline works is, people call in, leave a message with their name, phone number, their neighborhood or county school district and their need,” Heinrich explained to The Bellingham Herald. “Then a dispatcher takes those calls and inputs it into our command central where our neighborhood captains get notified and then they find a person to go help the neighbor in need.”
According to Heinrich, the community helpers have interpreters that can translate 34 languages, with a representative available for nearly every language spoken in Whatcom County. Those languages include Arabic, Chinese, Dari/Farsi, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
However, there are limitations to how the group can help.
“We’re limiting the help that we give to essential needs, which is making sure that we get food and prescriptions to people,” Heinrich said. “We’re trying to do what we can using safety protocol as much as possible. That’s really important, because I don’t want anybody to be passing the virus along as a result of this group when we’re trying to stop it.”
The group is not only offering services to help with picking up groceries and prescriptions but also assisting those who have lost their income with gift cards.
“We’re connected with the Fellowship of Messengers, it’s a non-profit in Lynden,” Heinrich said. “People can make donations to help us. We’re giving out gift cards to Safeway to help people pay for food and prescriptions, if they qualify.”
Those who qualify are chosen by Heinrich and four others on the selection committee.
“(The gift cards are for) people who have been directly affected by the virus and not being able to work essentially,” Heinrich said. “It’s not for people who get their help from other social services. It’s for people who can’t work and therefore can’t pay for their prescriptions (or groceries).”
The group will continue after the coronavirus pandemic eventually ends. Heinrich said there are ongoing talks about turning the group into a non-profit and a full website is being developed.
The community helpers have posted brightly colored flyers with the hotline number all over Bellingham and are working their way around Whatcom County. Those in need can call the hotline at 360-778-2762.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.