CityState: Reporter l by Ellen Liberman
State of Hope
Faced with the COVID-19 outbreak, these Rhode Islanders got creative.
Heather Dupee wasn’t sure she could do it. Three years after
opening her kids’ cooking school at Warren’s Hope and Main, the
former event planner was entirely at ease teaching elementary school
children how to make recipes like mac and cheese. But in mid-March,
as Governor Gina Raimondo progressively shuttered the public square
to contain the novel coronavirus, in-person classes were out.
Dupee thought about putting her Made by Me Cooking School
classes online, and that thought made her nervous. She wasn’t sure
she could keep the connection with her students — or her composure.
But, Dupee figured, the kids are stuck at home and everybody’s
got to eat.
“I am not tech-savvy at all. The first time was like, ‘Oh my goodness,
this is actually happening.’ ”
Dupee tied on her apron, propped up her cell phone and hit the
“live” button on her business’s Facebook page.
Most years, March is an indeterminant month. The gardener’s
hand starts itching for the feel of a trowel, the winter coat becomes
an unbearable burden and the debate over when to switch out the
clothes closets begins. The lucky make their pilgrimages to warmer
ILLUSTRATION BY MARIA FABRIZIO
climes, the rest of us merely hope.
This March was the month we got creative. Everything one might
imagine — yoga, concerts, college courses — moved to the Internet,
along with things one might not: cocktail parties, pub trivia competitions.
The community of helpers, from large, established foundations
to previously non-existent community-based groups, went into overdrive.
The hospitality industry, which represents the opposite of social
distancing, found other ways to dispense its comforts. And teachers,
those pedagogical MacGyvers, put their imaginations to work.
This March showcased the best of us.
Rhode Island Foundation President Neil D. Steinberg picked up
the phone and started dialing. One of the nation’s oldest community
foundations, it had long been a nexus for private resources and
unmet needs. It wasn’t hard to see that the state’s nonprofits were
going to be crushed by the demand at a time when they would be
unable to hold the charity galas and golf tournaments that provide
no small portion of their revenues. Within days, the foundation
partnered with United Way of Rhode Island and raised $4 million.
In seven weeks, donors pledged $8.3 million, and the foundation had
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY/JUNE 2020 31