Hi everyone, happy Wednesday and welcome to my new site, woohoo! While it is a weird time for celebrations, I truly am excited to share this with you all. Blood, sweat and tears have been put into this site from all parties involved (Katelyn – web designer, Lindsay + team – web developer and myself) and we couldn’t wait to bring everything and my vision to life. We all can agree, it was time for a MAJOR facelift.

My number one goal was to make things SO MUCH EASIER for you to find, search, navigate, etc. Each category at the top has sub categories so whether you are looking for a specific travel guide (you can filter through location, type of destination, etc.) or recipes for your littles, everything should be super clear and easy to find. I will do a quick tutorial over on Stories.

With the launch of my site, I also wanted this post to be in support to Covid 19 and everything that is going on in the world right now. As hard as it can be and as long as some days seem, it is important to remain positive, optimistic and for all of us to do our part. Matt and I have been donating in a few different ways, but I wanted to list out a couple ideas for you all if interested, both free and financial, depending on how you would like to help!

There is an overwhelming amount of information out there because so many people, organizations, etc. need support during this time. I found the easiest way to narrow things down is to focus locally in your community. I am listing a few thoughts and ideas below to get your wheels spinning.

• Supporting frontline workers with a gift card for a meal – I love this option because you are also helping keep local businesses afloat. Matt and I plan to do this for our local hospital. We are going to buy a gift card for the unit to use to feed the staff during their shift. Having worked in a hospital I know how great it is to have a quick and easy meal as you work as many of times you don’t get a break to sit and eat so grabbing a slice of pizza on the fly comes in handy.
• Show virtual support – Many fire departments, police stations, hospitals in your communities have Facebook pages set up. I have been hearing that they love to to receive positing, uplifting messaged, videos, thank yous, etc. on their pages. This is an easy way to get your kids involved too and help teach them about supporting your community and giving back.
• Sharing the love to local businesses – The majority of local businesses in NYC are leaving links in their social media page bios that takes you to a page that shares the best way to support them during this time and how to buy e-gift cards if they’re offering them. (We asked a few local places the best way to support them and/or donate to help in their efforts to feed our responders and they said outside of gift cards, continuing to order takeout/delivery is still best. They’re able to use the funds to hire back employees they had to temporarily let go and cook meals that are being donated. Most places are also extending their gift card expiration dates. So for example a boutique in Brooklyn, their gift cards are good for up to 2 years). Also, a lot of local restaurants have taken to accepting donations and using it to provide free meals to first responders, hospital staff and emergency rooms. A lot of larger chains like Sweet Green have pages set up to donate to, to feed first responders. Local places like Brooklyn Chop House and Radio City pizza (both NYC specific) are feeding hospital workers. Here are a few links to organizations that are partnering with local restaurants to feed workers for free that you can donate to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/lower-east-side-relief-feed-our-first-responders and https://www.feedthefrontlinesnyc.org/
• Nationwide pizza donation to healthcare workers – If you choose to donate, you can tell them who is in need of the food and they reach out to them to confirm just how much is needed and set it all up! https://blog.slicelife.com/pizza-vs-pandemic-sending-pizza-to-healthcare-workers/
• Hospital Relief Fund – If you are interested in a local hospital, I am sure SO many of them have this set up as well. I am partials to NYP/Weill Cornell as I worked there for 5 years and they are in the thick of dealing with all the NYC cases. This is one of the relief funds my family has donated too. Matt’s aunt works for Google and she donated and Google matched it. If you work at a larger company it is worth asking! https://bit.ly/34flZcZ
• Birthday Celebrating Gift Idea – So we originally wrote a little note with our invites for Logan’s birthday for our guests to please donate via their Amazon Wishlist to the Child Life department I used to work for, but now we are asking for them to donate to the NYP/Weill Cornell Relief Fund I mentioned above instead if they would like. Just a thought for all the celebrations that are taking place virtually now, you could think about any gift becoming a donation.