Elaine Dunn was almost at the end of the line,
and it was a long line, almost a mile from her location on the Service Road in
East Sandwich to the Sandwich Hollows Golf Course parking lot. She didn’t know
it but at the head of the line everything was stopped while a fork lift
unloaded another semi-trailer full of produce at the Food to Families
distribution.
I noticed Dunn because as I was framing up a
long traffic shot, a thumb popped out from her car window. I went over to get
her name and talk. She was there picking up food for her daughter who doesn’t
have a car. I gave her the most positive update I could about the wait time and
then headed back to the loading zone.
Earlier that same morning, also in Sandwich, I
was behind the old Wing School where town officials had set up a drive through
flu shot clinic for town residents. The clinic was designed to also be a test
for the upcoming day when a Covid-19 vaccine was available. The word
infrastructure stuck in my mind watching both of these operations assisting the
public.
Infrastructure is defined as “the underlying
structure or basic framework of a system,” as defined by Merriam-Webster, or in
other words, all the things we take for granted every day, even in a pandemic.
Clean water comes out our faucets, flip a switch, the lights come on, dial 9-11
and emergency personnel respond.
Watching a big group of volunteers coordinate
with food suppliers to put a trunk full of groceries into 1200 cars or medical crews
assemble in a seamless drive thru inoculation team is reassuring. Even in Covid
world, there are countless unsung volunteers out in our communities getting the
job done and making this pandemic something we can all get through, now six
months into what promises to be a long haul well into 2021. They don’t search
out the spot light, or make the front page, but if you see them, say thank you.
Steve Heaslip
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