Staying safe on the front lines of coronavirus era
Page 4 • Wednesday, May 13, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
PPE, from Page 3
get those because they’re sold out,
but we got good gloves that will
definitely protect us,” Macri said.
Brabson noted that wearing PPE
throughout the shift is new for
emergency department staff.
“We have to wear the surgical
mask and the face shield through-
out our shift as our own personal
protection, which can be uncom-
fortable and bothersome. Folks
that have to wear the P100 masks
are even more restrictive as far as
breathing and the fitting on their
face ... Anybody that is known to
be COVID-19 positive, there’s the
rest of the personal protective
equipment, the gowning and glov-
ing that we have to do, protecting
our clothing and our uniforms
from being contaminated if the
person would cough or sneeze,”
Brabson said.
The unknown nature of the
virus’s duration has also been a
chief concern for AtlantiCare per-
sonnel.
“Without having a defined end
in sight, this is different than any
other sort of natural disaster or
emergent situation that we’ve
dealt with, because most of them
have defined timelines. A hurri-
cane is going to last for one or two
days; a tornado goes and goes out.
It’s that lack of a defined endpoint
that has people on edge and wor-
ried and concerned, because
there’s no way to predict whether
or there’s going to be another
uptick or surge once the state
opens up again,” Brabson said.
Friel noted that police officers
have similar concerns, but also
still continue to perform their du-
ties.
“They’re leaving their families
at home, risking taking any type of
infection that they could receive,
bringing it home to their loved
ones at home. I believe that our de-
partment, our officers, are 100 per-
cent invested in the community
and care about making sure that
our community stays as safe and
healthy as possible. I haven’t had
anyone balk at coming in or going
to work. I haven’t had anyone ask-
ing for combat pay or special pay
because we’re at risk. Our depart-
ment really does care about our
community, and we’re here for
them,” Friel said.
Macri said that the members of
the Hammonton Fire Department
have also been keeping their spir-
its high when it comes to the job.
“Morale is pretty good. You
have guys that are worried—about
family members, about their own
livelihood ... a lot of that has to do
with home life; it’s the everyday
stuff, and we’re all going through
it. Everyone’s every-day is differ-
ent now, with different routines
and different things that you do;
that’s what’s harder for us to adjust
to, myself included, than the new
rules here and there for the fire de-
partment,” Macri said.
One component which has been
helping morale across the board
has been the community response
in combatting COVID-19.
“We’ve had members in the
community, businesses in the
community, rally up and provide
us with N95 masks; we have full
re-breather silicone masks that
were donated to us. Using our
local channels of stores and differ-
ent places where we could procure
items, we’ve purchased face
shields from local vendors instead
of waiting for resources that, at
this point, still haven’t come from
the county. We’ve gotten some
N95 reusable masks on a couple of
occasions from the county, but the
laundry list of PPE that we asked
for, we’d still be waiting for,” Friel
said.
Macri agreed that the contribu-
tions of residents helped the de-
partment when other assistance
was unavailable.
“We’ve had donations of PPE.
We’ve had donations of food. Any
little bit is appreciated. But the
people in town have been over-ap-
preciative, and it has made this a
lot easier. The PPE that we got
from the businesses and the people
in town got us over the hump until
the supply lines got opened back
up ... I can’t say enough about the
townspeople. They’ve been so
helpful. I get phone calls all the
time—what can I do? How can I
help?—but that just goes with the
family atmosphere of the town,”
Macri said.
Brabson noted that such help from the community makes them
very much a part of the fight
against COVID-19.
“They have a tangible contribu-
tion that they’re providing to the
hospitals, to EMS, to the police
and fire departments by putting
their effort into making these
masks, which will then get used ...
People are very talented, and peo-
ple are very creative with respect
to their masks, and they’re very
much appreciated. It’s a win/win
for everyone,” Brabson said.
Friel said that these efforts come
part and parcel with being a resi-
dent of Hammonton.
“We’re so close together in how
we feel about each other, how we
work with each other and how we
care about each other. I think that’s
great; I think there are a lot of other communities that probably
don’t have that same symbiosis to
be able to work together and live
together so well, but we’re proud
to be here, we’re proud to come in
and help our community every
day,” Friel said.
Part of that help, Brabson said,
is making sure that residents know
that they are as safe as possible if
they need to visit the emergency
department.
“The personnel in the emer-
gency department are all wearing
their masks, and the personal pro-
tective measures that the workers
in the emergency department and
in the hospital are taking are there
to protect both the worker and the
patient. We’re all in this to help
each other, and we’re all in this to
protect each other,” Brabson said.
by Joseph F. Berenato covelli, Executive Director for
MainStreet Hammonton, said.
Local artist Don Swenson
started Art Club along with Jon
Bradley and Sue Moerder at the
beginning of March. They invited
other artists they knew to join the
club, which now has close to 40
people who are interested.
Iacovelli brought Swenson into
the Third Thursday fold in Febru-
ary during a meeting of Main-
Street’s art advisory committee.
“Don offered to take some lead-
ership for April. He had some re-
ally good ideas for our theme for
spring—flower power—and ini-
tially, by him taking some leader-
ship for that, pre-pandemic, once
we ended up with the new situa-
tion which we’re all living, he still
took responsibility and that’s why
he did take the leadership. The
planning for that particular month
and his willing to take more lead- ership for the price of the arts
started out pre-coronavirus and
continued after, and that’s why
they created this virtual experi-
ence,” Iacovelli said.
Swenson said that the idea was
borne from the successes of simi-
lar programs in other communi-
ties.
“I saw that a bunch of people
were starting to do these virtual
presentations, like Collingswood
had done one at the Scottish Rite
Auditorium with a very similar
program using streaming art. We
thought it would be a great idea to
try to bring some normalcy back
to town and bring Third Thursday
as usual and bring it to everybody
since everybody couldn’t gather
outside,” Swenson said.
Iacovelli said that the virtual
Third Thursday was a success.
Third Thursday goes virtual for May 21
G AZETTE S TAFF W RITER
HAMMONTON—Third
Thursdays, a staple in Hammon-
ton for several years, have always
featured outdoor activities along
Bellevue Avenue to attract a
crowd. With the recent restrictions
mandated by Governor Phil Mur-
phy in response to the novel coro-
navirus (COVID-19), however,
that had to change.
Fortunately, the newly formed
Art Club in Hammonton had
some ideas.
“I’m delighted to have the in-
volvement of Art Club. I wasn’t
really sure what to do with Third
Thursday, and they helped make
that decision for me by their ini-
tiative and foresight. They were
progressive in their thinking,
which was awesome,” Cassie Ia-
See THuRSDAY, Page 14