The first thoughts of quarantine were scary: How will I get my things? How will I get my groceries? How will I get my special shampoo (admit it - you thought it, and then you remembered that most brands and boutique hair salons are shipping). Beacon Mutual Aid has emerged as a group of volunteers who are helping to connect those dots - your need, and how to make it happen. Help is available in Spanish and English.

Weeks into our Stay-At-Home Life here in Beacon, NY, we have adjusted to new ways of shopping for food (easy Key Food runs for well-stocked and disinfected shelves, Beacon Natural for new curbside pickup and delivery options and new hours, Beacon Farmers Market, open for pre-order and pickup with possible delivery option, Artisan Wine Shop making deliveries, and several of your favorite boutiques making personal deliveries or shipping through the mail.

The deeper thoughts are scarier: What if I get sick? Who will care for my kids if I’m a solo parent? What if I’m too sick to feed myself? How will I get my prescriptions? Grocery delivery via Peapod isn’t as fast or well stocked with brands (two-week wait time is common), so insta-in-person-to-friend requests are faster for getting what you need. Volunteers have offered to help with deliveries, so at this time in Beacon, you are surrounded by help. All you need to do is ask.

While Governor Andrew Cuomo has been trying to address these needs as he leads us to the apex by strongly encouraging that pharmacies deliver medications (a recent agreement 3/29/2020… if you’re hiring delivery people, post your job for free here on A Little Beacon Blog), Beaconites were ahead of the curve.

Beacon Mutual Aid Group Pops Up - To Help Anyone

Beacon Mutual Aid was spearheaded by Dara Silverman and developed by many, including Virginia Beata, who stepped in to help manage. At first it was based on Facebook, and then grew to have a website so that more people could request help, and has been taking requests for help from anyone who lives in Beacon. The number of volunteers in the group quickly rose from 80 to 200, and now possibly more. According to the website, the concept was based on similar community-need models in other states: “Thank you to Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville, Community Care and Mutual Aid Milwaukee, Mutual Aid Solidarity Network of Seattle and others who are models for this work.”

Requests that come in can be for anything: a grocery request from a quarantined mom who wonders how to do meal pickup (answer: arrange for delivery with the Beacon City School district! email landahl.m@beaconk12.org to sign up for delivery), to a request on behalf of someone’s neighbor who broke their foot and needs a standing wheel scooter.

While people can officially make a request for help from Beacon Mutual Aid via a form on Beacon Mutual Aid’s website, people in-the-know can connect with each other quickly via Facebook to ask questions or put out a request - even on behalf of their neighbor who has no connection to computers or the Internet. But you don’t need to be on Facebook to use the group. You don’t even have to know how to use the Internet to use the group.

“Do I Need To Know Someone To Use The Group?”

The beautiful thing about the group is that it spurs a person to think about their neighbor. While Mayor Lee Kyriacou encourages citizens to check on their neighbors in his COVID-related robo-calls to residents, this group has split into “pods,” where people coordinate with their own neighbors or blocks to be vocal in the group to ask for something on behalf of their neighbor who may have no access to Facebook, or the Internet, or be comfortable with asking others for help at all. You don’t need to have a “pod” to use the group. You can be a random, unaffiliated person in Beacon.

Personally, I have been calling my slightly senior citizen neighbor to ask if she needs grocery pickups. Recently I have been letting my younger (40s) solo neighbor know that should he get sick and have no one there, to text me. Call 911 in an emergency of course, but text me, too. Keep me in the loop for any needs. As for my divorced single mom neighbor, of course she knows I am there for her for anything, but recently, I planted the seed of: “What if your ex-husband gets sick, and we know his parents are too old to physically care for him? Have you considered this scenario, since he lives alone?”

No one wants to feel alone in this quarantined, social-distanced life, and the Beacon Mutual Aid Group has helped aid in that.

How To Use The Beacon Mutual Aid Group

Anyone can use it, and no request is too small. According to Dara’s quote in The Highlands Current, they get a lot of requests for soap and groceries. I personally have used it to find experts in certain fields for quotes and resources for articles here at A Little Beacon Blog. They are also very connected to the handmade mask movement that started weeks ago to address known shortages for masks (yes, Governor Cuomo said today that they did not predict this shortage, but this had been a known fact inside of hospitals if you had any friends who were working the front lines in hospitals, despite the White House saying that shipments were coming from whatever large company contributing to the cause).

Activating Help Within The Beacon Mutual Aid Group

Need something? Fill out this Request For Help form.

Want to offer your help? Fill out this Offers form.

Organize a neighborhood “pod.” Check out the directions and examples here. It even includes a flyer you could print out just to familiarize people with the concept. Paper printouts always ground people. The concept is as follows, from Beacon Mutual Aid’s website:
”As things get harder, we show up for our neighbors. As a neighborhood point person, you’d take on the responsibility of reaching out to your neighbors, checking in on what needs are arising on your block, coordinating a neighborhood group chat or phone tree, and staying in touch with the point people from other neighborhoods for resource pooling. We are trying to build a network of many neighborhood pods across Beacon.”

This may be a new concept for skeptical New Yorkers, who aren’t used to having anyone in their business. Even if you don’t sign up for this, or put in a request, you still could act as a point person for one or two of your neighbors.

Regardless, the Beacon Mutual Aid Group is here for you.

Fill out your request on their website, or if that’s too much, call or email:
beaconmutualaid@gmail.com
(845) 206-9836

Donating To Beacon Mutual Aid

More and more, Beacon Mutual Aid is behind some pretty amazing initiatives. Like Free Groceries at the meal pickups for Beacon City Schools parents. This is huge. It is open for anyone, and targeting those in need. Those of us who have just lost jobs, client projects, and had income freeze, the extra head of lettuce and bag of rice has been a welcome take-home as bills pile up. Says Dara: “All the donations have been used to buy groceries for people who can’t afford them.”

Donate to Beacon Mutual Aid via venmo via mutualaidbeacon, as they tap into farms and other organizations to make this happen. If you don’t have Venmo (as this blogger does not use Venmo) then email them at beaconmutualaid@gmail.com to see how to send a check.

Be well.