CANTWELL CLAN UNRELIABLE UPDATES
To start, let me assure you that we remain safe and mostly sane. 2020 has truly been an unprecedented year. The novel coronavirus has been openly questioning if it can do as much damage to the world as Donald J. Trump has done to the United States. For most 2020 sucked bigly and for many 2021 is only going to suck slightly less. In our annual updates we tend to err on the side of levity. We hope you read this in the spirit that it is meant: to inform, amuse, and to substantially bemuse.
Before Covid
After Covid
When Covid struck the Mamaroneck schools closed and Sally took action to support the children in our community, some of whom depended on the schools for their one reliable and nutritious meal a day. She and few other inspirational leaders organized volunteers to work with schools to ensure no child would go hungry.
9 months later these efforts have evolved into the Larchmont Mamaroneck Hunger Task Force. The force combats the dark side by providing food to over 500 families in our community each week. If you live in or near our community and are in need, would like to donate, or volunteer please access this site http://www.lmfoodpantry.org for more information on how to harness the force for good.
It started small but is It is an industrial scale operation now
COVID SUX
Sam and Kate are both Paramedics who are on the front line every day.
Sam has had Covid once (he is fine now) and thinks he probably had it twice but in the omni-shambles that is our response to the virus we prefer not to test paramedics for the virus especially once President Tiny Hands said
“So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’"
Early in the pandemic Paul got a call from a good friend Germain Cuff who is in the Anesthesiology department of NYU. Medics were performing intubations which sprayed them with aerosols of Covid. They had researched and found that a Dr Lai in Taiwan had created a Perspex shield - but they could not find anyone who made them in the US.
Germain called Paul who leapt into action do what he normally does, he worked very hard to find someone else to do the work. Paul called friends (including Seamus, who was extraordinarily helpful) they called more friends and soon a coalition of mostly unqualified but determined execs had formed under the banner of https://www.protectcovidstaff.com.
We sourced designs, persuaded manufactures to produce them at a low cost, and informed the medics that they existed.
All coordinated over Zoom and Slack with a peak of 70+ volunteers I am not going to embarrass you volunteers by calling you out, but you know who you are, and you have a special place in my heart because you know that you had a hand in making a real contribution to save lives.
If you know a medic performing high risk procedures and you want to get hold of a low cost shield; if you fancy building one yourself (they are dog simple and we provide designs); if you are just curious or want to spread the word to medics then please click on this link to the PCS homepage
Or you can learn more by watching this video.
(Click on the small music note icon on the bottom right to hear the audio)
Credits
Editing: Rory Cantwell.
Deep and credible voice over: Gerry Adolph
Marketting direction: Carol Cruze
Website design and build: Oliver Wyman volunteers
Contributions from many members of PCS
We were not the only ones who got creative with PPE hacks.
Covid haircuts were a thing during lockdown. They were a triumph of effort over effectiveness. The results speak for themselves!
In the spring there was a desperate shortage of PPE and the whole family got involved in what could best be described as PPE Hacks or "bodge-jobs”. We got in touch with our creative sides by building PPE prototypes out of rain capes and covering the face holes with clear plastic or wearing them backwards and gluing in safety googles. Thankfully never deployed in NY it was interesting that we did see similar hacks being used elsewhere in the world.
https://www.protectcovidstaff.com has a section that shares some of the other PPE hacks that emerged as necessity became the mother of invention around the world.
Dior's fall PPE lineup.
In this the strangest of years we remember what the Hollidays used to be like
and pray that next year we will all be able to gather with the ones that we love.
An eggselent performance in this year's socially distant Easter egg hunt.
Sam has a new start up. He is calling it Aqua Uber for Woofers or "AUWoof". His plan is to float on NASDAQ.
Freya graduated with 1st in Accounting and Finance from Newcastle Uni (UK). She was accepted to pursue her master’s in Data Science in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney Unis. However, the coronavirus said, “Look, we’re an uber contagious virus, we are going to do what uber contagious viruses do – infect people”. You know what happened next, so Freya opted to do her masters at Newcastle where at least, she got to isolate with some great friends, so she is at pizza with the situation.