Briana Vamosi is working toward law and medical degrees to eventually join the frontlines, but she wants to help the community now. The University of Akron student created the Akron COVID-19 Match website to pair individuals at higher risk of infection with healthy volunteers. After the New Franklin native saw the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky COVID-19 match website and discovered there isn’t a similar program in The 330, she stepped in to launch the website in April. Volunteers pick up prescriptions, deliver groceries or call to check-in with the person every few days.
“We had family close to our grandparents that could help our loved ones who are high risk of COVID get these things. That’s not always the case. There are people in the Akron community that don't have support systems or things to fall back on now. Hopefully, in a way, we could extend to be their family now.
It’s a hard time not just for going out and getting things but also for people’s mental health. So we’re encouraging people to reach out no matter what their needs are. It's OK to be on the receiving side and to ask for help. We have so many generous people that are willing to help.
We have a surplus of volunteers. I’ve been really impressed with how the volunteers are trying to figure out how to best serve their match.
I’ve received a lot of positive feedback. I’ve had many people reach out and be very thankful because they didn’t know where to turn and now they have something to turn to. It takes that extra anxiety and stress off of this time.
The more we are focusing on how we can be helping each other and how we could be making this time less traumatic and less harmful to individuals — that's how we're going to get through this.” — as told to Madeline Myers
