Volunteer

Read the article below about how US teens volunteers organize service to help most vulnerable during coronavirus outbreak.

Six Feet Supplies, a free student-led service that takes its name from the separation required by social distancing, has used more than 100 volunteers to deliver more than US$27,000 (RM117,593) of food to 260 homes in targeted areas of Los Angeles County in the last six weeks. Another group of teens developed a platform that allows neighbours to assist one another by requesting or donating hard-to-find goods and services.

At a time when many adults have been left feeling anxious and overwhelmed by the spread of Covid-19 and the disruption of normal life it has caused, students from six Santa Clarita Valley high schools have stepped into the void, offering critical help to many whose needs were going unmet. The delivery service serves Santa Clarita, the city of San Fernando and West Los Angeles.

"A lot of parents just think we're always on our phones or always playing games," said Avi Basnet, a 16-year-old Valencia High junior who wrote much of the coding for the Supply Neighbor website. "It's really nice to prove them wrong. That we actually can, like, make a difference in the world."

The ideas for Six Feet Solutions started with Zoe Monterola and Eric Luo, juniors at rival high schools who studied together at Global Prep Academy, an after-school programme. GPA's curriculum emphasises community involvement, so days after Santa Clarita's high schools were locked down in mid-March, students were already brainstorming volunteer opportunities when David Najar, the academy's founder, related a story about a neighbour leaving a note asking him if he needed anything.

Monterola and Luo figured GPA could expand that idea community-wide and quickly developed a program to make it happen. Clients can go to the Six Feet Supplies website, provide their name, address, phone number and a shopping list, with requests that can be as simple as "hamburger buns" or exact enough to include the brand name, size and flavor. Clients can also request goods from a specific market, with one recent trip requiring stops at three different stores.

Armed with that information, the group dispatches students to collect the goods, pay for them and deliver them to the client's front door, texting a copy of the receipt so they can be repaid online. And though they have no physical contact with the clients, the students do get emails.

"There are a lot of small interactions that make it worth it," said Riel, remembering the thank-you note a man undergoing cancer treatment left at his door. "You obviously don't know your customer that well. But when we understood that they really are people that you need to help, that's what made it really fulfilling.

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