The pandemic outbreak has meant Winnipeg companies and organizations have had to shift how they work, connect and help others. We wanted to take a look at how local companies are still managing to do all of those things, but from a respectable two metre distance or more.
Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson says it started #ActsOfMainteNICE where its maintenance team is doing as acts of good deeds. The company says its crew is normally around the city for regular maintenance jobs, but the team is now helping with deliveries, pick-ups, and other acts of kindness. They have delivered hampers to hungry families and on March 27th, they took a donation of commercial grade sanitizer over to the Main Street Project.
“We want the community to know that Cushman & Wakefield Stevenson is here for them, no matter what they need. Our company, like many others, will be faced with a lot in the coming weeks and months, but we believe that leading with kindness will see us through to the other side. Winnipeg has always been a place where people build each other up and that hasn’t changed, even in an uncertain world,” says Aaron DeGroot, President, Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson
We can all be heroes by being Kind!
Our superheroes are busy helping out various people & organizations in our community. DM us if you know anyone who needs a hand during these trying times. We are welcoming any requests or good deeds #ActsOfMainteNICE #Winnipeg #Kindness pic.twitter.com/GwXuQ69eSJ
— Cushman & Wakefield | Stevenson (@CW_Stevenson) March 25, 2020
The Winnipeg brokerage property management company put a call out on its Twitter account for more people or organizations to reach out if they need help and people can follow their ‘MainteNICE’ crew on its social media channel to see what they’re up to next.
With social distancing in full swing, Bold Commerce is doing its part to try and help local restaurants and shops stay open and continue to operate. In partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press, it created Buylocal.ly - a free directory of local restaurants, shops and services with pickup and delivery options during COVID-19.
People can support a business near them by typing in their area code while businesses can also register to be part of the platform.
Tripwire Media Group is helping businesses with free online videos with tips on how to create better content, videos and storytelling for companies still trying to build their brands while they are working from home.
“Everyone has been reacting really positively. I’m trying to add some comedy and fun editing to keep it engaging and authentic. Right now, no one’s lives are really polished and I don’t want my videos to come off like they are. We are getting more and more views on every video. On the third video we had 400 views in a day,” says Doug Darling, owner of Tripwire Media Group.
“I’m asking people to let me know about what they would like to hear about. Someone asked about how to use story in keeping people safe and so I’ll be making a video that addresses that this week”.
Other companies have moved quickly to help our community’s most vulnerable during this time. Maple Leaf Foods posted on its website that it was operating at full capacity in order to keep food on Canadian store shelves but vowing to make sure it did it safely.
But, it also said its Centre for Food Security would be donating $2.5 million to the Canadian Frontline Healthcare Professionals Protection Fund and another $2 million to food banks across the country including in Winnipeg and Northern Manitoba.
Canada Life joined forces with IGM Financial, and Power Corporation of Canada for a $1 million joint fund to support crisis relief efforts across Canada, including donations to Winnipeg Harvest.
Local restaurants and non-profit, Oceans North, are donating about 2,000 lbs. of high-quality fish like Arctic Char that might otherwise go to waste, to 1,000 Inuit people separated from their families and living in Winnipeg. Other Winnipeggers can also order fish through Lake to Plate.
Our educational institutions are also stepping up to help where they can with Red River College offering to re-deploy 3D printers, manufacturing equipment and labs to support the production of medical devices and supplies. University of Manitoba is lending its research expertise as part of an innovative clinical trial between Manitoba, Alberta, Quebec and the United States to study Hydroxychloroquine, a Health Canada-approved drug. The study will focus on participants who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who live with individuals who test positive and how the drug can “flatten the curve” of this pandemic. The trial will also be open to health-care workers who were exposed to patients with confirmed positive infection. Another study lead by Winnipeg virologist, Xiaojian Yao, at the university’s Laboratory of Molecular Human Retrovirology, was one of six selected by the federal government this month to receive funding for research directly targeting finding a vaccine.
We are all in this together while we’re apart so if you can help, our friends at North Forge Technology Exchange teamed up with the province to create a province-wide free app called Help Next Door MB, a volunteer services portal. Anyone who is willing to pitch in can offer their services and time. At the same time, it also allows Manitobans in need to ask for help for things like getting groceries, medication, emergency snow clearing and various other necessities.
If you know of a company that is a community changemaker at this time, let us know at [email protected]. We would love to share our #LocalLove for Winnipeggers making a difference in our city.