Coronavirus got you down? Here are five good things happening in Fresno to cheer you up
It’s been a tough couple of weeks.
I think we all can agree that the skyrocketing number of coronavirus cases, and all the adjustments that come with sheltering in place, are making us all a little anxious.
But before you let the bad news get you down, remember good things are happening even now. There are good people in this world who are helping each other – even if they have to do it from 6 feet away.
Here are five things that happened in the Fresno area recently that might cheer you up.
1. Pizza for health care workers
Emergency department workers at Fresno and Clovis hospitals got a pleasant surprise last week – free pizza delivered from The Curry Pizza Co.
The locally owned restaurants delivered the pizzas to one of five hospitals each day last week for a total of about 90 donated pizzas. The owners plan to do it again next week.
Malhi Singh, one of the owners, said Curry Pizza wanted to do something that might help relieve the anxiety health care workers who are on the front lines dealing with COVID-19 must be feeling.
“We see all the (healthcare) industry working hard right now, and everybody else is sitting at home,” he said. “They don’t have a choice to sit home.”
What makes this gesture even more special?
The restaurants are doing it at a time when their own business is down 45%.
Curry Pizza Co.’s dining rooms – which are where most of its lunchtime business and about 50% of its weekend business happens – are closed. The restaurants aren’t doing delivery because employees didn’t feel safe doing it and owners didn’t want to force them, Singh said.
That leaves DoorDash and UberEats for delivery, which take about 30% of the total sale from the restaurant.
“We’re not doing too good right now,” Singh said.
He’s hoping people call the restaurants directly to order pizza and pick it up themselves.
The restaurants serve both traditional and Indian-style pizzas, along with vegan options, and have a location on West Shaw Avenue and another at Willow and Nees avenues in Fresno.
2. Coincidence and kindness
Amalgamation Brewing Co., a new brewery in northwest Fresno, gave a customer a lot more than beer recently. Back before bars and breweries were ordered closed by the city, a bummed-out man came in for a beer.
He had been out to three or four stores looking for toilet paper and a baby thermometer for his baby – and couldn’t find either.
One of the brewery owners, Kevin Lisitsin, started chatting with him about the situation. Lisitsin gave him some toilet paper the brewery had on hand.
A woman at the next table overheard their conversation. She’s a nurse at Valley Children’s Hospital and just happened to have a still-in-the-package baby thermometer in her purse; she carried the thermometer just in case.
She gave it to the man.
“He went to a bar to get toilet paper and a thermometer,” said Lisitsin, who got emotional talking about it. “It’s just cool to see things like that come together, to see random people with so much grace. It’s just a cool experience.”
3. A social distancing parade
Carey Norton, the editor of custom publications at The Bee, was working from home when she saw a parade of cars drive down her residential street.
They were honking, waving, carrying balloons and signs saying “We miss you!”
They were from Boris Elementary in Clovis, presumably teachers or staffers trying to brighten the day of students stuck in their homes.
One particularly poignant sign? The one that read “Be nice to your parents.”
4. A challenge to support small business
Restaurants and bars are being hit hard as they’re forced to do takeout only – or in the case of bars, close entirely – leading to layoffs and cutbacks.
So it was a little ray of sunshine Thursday when Darin Zuber, a real estate broker at Keller Williams in Fresno, posted a challenge on his Facebook page that was shared around the internet.
“I am challenging anyone who is willing. Go buy gift cards at smaller businesses and don’t use them until all businesses are up and running again. This gives them cash during very needed times. I went to 10 businesses and bought $100 of gift cards at each. I will not use gift cards until everyone is up and running.”
He instructed people to tag him with their gift card purchases. And they did.
Several people bought $500 worth of gift cards, posting pictures of them in the comments. Others committed to buying them. One business, ThomCo Associates Insurance Services, bought $1,000 worth, sharing the pictures of the gifts cards online.
In all, the post resulted in several thousand dollars’ worth of gift card purchases.
5. Milk and kindness
Bee reporter Bryant-Jon Anteola brought us a sweet story this week about strangers helping a mom get milk for her family.
Sophie Jurado-Vang tried to buy four gallons of milk for her family of six – soon to be seven. She’s pregnant and has 2-year-old and 3-year-old daughters at home, along with a husband and her in-laws.
She tried to buy four gallons of milk, but Smart & Final had a limit of two gallons per customer.
That’s when a man in line, a stranger, bought two gallons of milk and then handed them over to Jurado-Vang as a gift.
The generosity made her start crying, a “big ol’ ugly cry,” she said. She looked around to find the cashier, bagger and customers tearing up, too.
The man said to her: “God is good. We’ve all got to get through this.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 2:24 PM.
