Pick-Me-Ups: News and Notes from the Yankee Community

Judging by the stories we still tell about the Blizzard of ’78, New England prides itself on bearing up and hunkering down. However, the events of recent weeks are challenging even the hardiest, most independent among us to find new sources of strength and comfort. We here at Yankee hope this collection of good news can help provide that for you, no matter where you live.

Pick-Me-Ups: News and Notes from the Yankee Community

• Shepard Fairey, best known for the 2008 Barack Obama “Hope” poster, is using art to help boost spirits in Rhode Island. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, he has created an art piece called R.I. Angel of Hope and Strength to promote the new RI Arts initiative, which both encourages people to connect through art and supports the Rhode Island Artist Relief Fund. Of the piece, he said it’s meant to “generally symbolize the spirit of hope, strength, compassion, and resilience that we can all summon in ourselves and share collectively.”
• Midcoast Maine is tapping into some good cheer, as the holiday star on Camden’s Mount Battie has been lighted by volunteers more than seven months early. It marks the first time in the display’s 50-plus years that it has been lighted outside the holiday season. Organizers say the star — which reportedly can be seen from as far as Matinicus Island, some 20 miles away — will be lighted at each night for as long as the pandemic lasts.

• New Hampshire’s MacDowell Colony, the nation’s oldest artists’ colony, has reopened its doors to give shelter to frontline healthcare workers needing to self-quarantine. Founded in 1906, MacDowell has hosted some of the nation’s most celebrated writers, artists, and composers, including Aaron Copland and Alice Walker, but it closed down its residency operations in March due to concerns about COVID-19.
• A Massachusetts amateur athlete has notched a victory in a sport made for social distancing. As The Boston Globe reported this week, 29-year-old Ben Thompson of Medford broke a 20-year-old speed record on the Skyline Trail in Middlesex Fells Reservation in pursuit of Fastest Known Time (FKT).
• Connecticut’s frontline workers are getting high-fives from Hollywood. Thanks to a well-connected Nutmeg State attorney, celebrities including Billy Baldwin, Debra Messing, and Steve Guttenberg have shared videos praising the efforts of first responders and healthcare workers, and teachers as well.
• In Rhode Island, best-selling author and Narragansett resident Padma Venkatraman rallied her fellow young-adult authors to use their books as platforms to help raise awareness of public health guidelines. Dubbed #AuthorsTakeAction, the social-media campaign will culminate in a book drive.

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Pick-Me-Ups from Friday, April 24

• Last weekend the Harvard Alpaca Ranch — a three-year-old family-run enterprise in Harvard, MA, that has hosted alpaca yoga and alpaca-assisted therapy, among other offerings — invited its cooped-up neighbors to go on an alpaca safari. Held at nearby Westward Orchards, the drive-through event drew a few hundred fans of the fuzzy camelids, and raised nearly $2,000 for a local food pantry. 
• In the lead-up to Ramadan, the New England Arab American Organization put together and distributed food donations to help hundreds of new Mainers prepare for the Muslim holy month. Founded in Westbrook, ME, in 2016, the NEAAO works to support Arab immigrant families and bridge the gap between cultures.
• The c. 1741 Colony House in Newport, RI, has started ringing its bells at noon every Friday to remind residents “we’re all in this together.” The effort was organized by the Newport Historical Society, which is inviting churches and individuals to join in by ringing their own bells each week. As the society wrote in its event announcement: Newporters are not strangers to adversity; together we have faced extreme hardships. We are also not strangers to ingenuity; together we have created an incredible place to live.

• A Massachusetts ski resort owner’s light-bulb idea has led to the creation of Goggles For Docs, a New England–based organization that collects new and used snow goggles to provide eye protection for frontline healthcare workers. Burlington, VT’s Burton Snowboards is among those who have pitched in to donate some 32,000 pairs so far — but even more is needed, organizers say. (To learn how to donate, click here.)
• Quincy, MA, is buzzing about a mystery woman dubbed the “Bar Pizza Bandit” for her unique spin on do-gooding. Over the past two weeks, she has shelled out $600 on food deliveries to local firefighters, police, and EMTs — specifically, deliveries of South Shore bar pizza, a signature food in this part of Massachusetts.
• In Keene, NH, a company called Bulldog Design has launched the Great Grey Tee Project, which offers T-shirts customized with logos from almost 300 local businesses and organizations — from theaters to hair salons to schools — many of which have never been featured on tees before. A portion of the sale goes directly to aid the business featured on the shirt.

• This past Monday was supposed to have seen the running of the Boston Marathon, one of the city’s most cherished sporting events, now in its 124th year. Though the race has been postponed until September, The Boston Globe paid tribute to this Patriots’ Day tradition, and to the city, with “Boston Is Still Running.” Produced with Boston-based agency MullenLowe U.S., this combination ad campaign and fund-raiser includes a video narrated by Massachusetts native John Krasinski and an invitation to join the Globe in donating meals from local restaurants for frontline healthcare workers.

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Pick-Me-Ups from Friday, April 17

• Looking for a way to pay tribute to healthcare workers taking on the challenge of COVID-19, mural artist Kathryn Wiegers created and installed a “Rosie the Riveter”–inspired mural on the lawn of the Chaffee Art Center (where she is a juried artist member) in Rutland, VT.
• In Providence, RI, the 19-year-old son of two ER doctors has hit on an ingenious way to help COVID-19 patients connect with loved ones: provide them with gently used iPhones and iPads to use for FaceTime, Zoom, messaging, and so forth. The result is the Covid Connectors initiative, a partnership with the Rhode Island Medical Society — and according to the Providence Journal, the donated tech has already been used to help in celebrating an anniversary celebration, meeting a new grandchild, and saying good-bye to a family member.
• To keep up the buzz around her fund-raiser for hospitality workers, top Boston bartender Naomi Levy is offering mixology lessons and quarantine cocktail hacks. (Don’t have any citrus for that margarita? Check your cupboard for vinegar.)

• In northern Maine, musher Hannah Lucas has spent the past few weeks delivering groceries and medicine to the elderly via dogsled. Lucas, who runs a sled dog team and kennel in Caribou, told Maine Public Radio: “I think about my grandparents who are in their 70s and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to anyone. So anything I can do to help, I will.”
• An iconic New England food brand is coming through in the crunch. TheBoston Globe’s Billy Baker takes a behind-the-scenes look at Teddie Peanut Butter as the Everett, Massachusetts–based company works overtime to keep supermarket shelves stocked and its own employees safe.
• Maine’s own Stephen King and Richard Chizmar, his collaborator on Gwendy’s Button Box, are giving away 200 of their novels to bookworms in need during the coronavirus crisis. King has anted up 100 copies of If It Bleeds, due out April 21, and Chizmar’s Cemetery Dance Publications is putting up titles including Gwendy’s Button Box, Gwendy’s Magic Feather, and The Long Way Home.

• After learning some healthcare workers were so desperate for personal protective equipment (PPE) they were making gowns from trash bags, Nathaniel “Than” Moore saw an unusual solution: graduation gowns as makeshift PPE. As an emergency medicine physician’s assistant, he knew they weren’t perfect but their length, sleeves, and easy-zip access put them far above other options. Moore’s clearinghouse, Gowns4Good, is now collecting new and used gowns for distribution to medical facilities in need; as of April 13, nearly 1,000 gowns had been donated.
• More good news for medical folks: Segway inventor Dean Kamen used his clout to secure more than 91,000 pounds of PPE from China for distribution in his home state of New Hampshire. Not only did he front the money for the estimated 7 million to 8 million pieces of PPE, but he also called on FedEx CEO Fred Smith to hustle it onto a plane and over to the U.S.
• Among the heartfelt musical performances cropping up lately, here is one of our all-time favorites from New England. In it, the friends and neighbors of a Mass General nurse arrange for a sidewalk performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that brings her (and us) to tears.

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Pick-Me-Ups from Friday, April 10

• Portland’s Maine Flag Company is seeing gale-force demand for its new “Heart of It All” flags, a fund-raising initiative that sees all profits going to support local restaurants and healthcare workers. They keep selling out (a wait list is available), but owners Bethany Field and Chris Korzen told local TV station WMTW that the company will just keep on making the flags until they aren’t needed anymore.
• In an effort to support fellow musicians who have lost work due to the pandemic, Vermont violin maker Jacob Brillhart livestreamed himself building a violin — or more accurately, an instrument for do-gooding. The violin will be raffled off in May, and as of April 9 it had drawn nearly $30,000 in contributions.
• Jewish centers across New England delivered truly happy meals for Passover this past week with “Seder to-go kits.” And with Easter right around the corner, Christian congregations are likely to get equally creative — like this Massachusetts church that’s offering a holiday service inspired by drive-in theaters.
• For new scientific insight into how the coronavirus works, MIT researchers have put it to music:

• In Burlington, VT, skateboarders are self-policing to keep their waterfront park open. Among those leading the effort is the local business Maven Skateshop, which is recruiting volunteer monitors to remind skaters of social-distancing guidelines.
• Embracing charity as one of the core beliefs of his Muslim faith, the owner of a Rhode Island convenience store has been giving away milk to those who need it — more than 2,400 gallons and counting. And when he says it’s free, he means it: Employees reportedly have chased after customers to return the money they left on the counter.
• A new arts initiative in Keene, New Hampshire, has launched weekly “listening parties” that invite the whole town to put on the same album at the same time. Last Saturday it was throwback R&B with Steve Wonder’s Innervisions. Coming up: Cat Power’s Moon Pix.
• UConn’s mascot, Jonathan the Husky, definitely turned some heads when he paid a visit to Mystic Aquarium — trust us, you have to watch it! And if that weren’t enough, Jonathan is showing us all how to get along in the age of quarantine, from donning a face mask to meeting up with colleagues on Zoom.