The COVID-19 pandemic has kept most of us close to home, and many people have used their restricted mobility as an opportunity to connect with their neighbors. From volunteering to deliver essentials to witnessing a front-yard wedding, communities are finding new ways to come together—even while maintaining a six-foot distance.
(Jolene Work) 
(Tom Schruben) 
(Sara Erenthal)
Laughter is the Best Medicine (But You Should Still Consult Your Doctor)
- In Maryland, Tom Schruben and his daughter Darcy are brightening up their neighborhood with daily “Bad Dad Jokes” posted in their front yard. Some sample jokes: What do you call a bear with no teeth? (A Gummy bear). I ordered a chicken and an egg on Amazon….I’ll let you know. (ba dum dum)
- Meanwhile in Canada, an entrepreneurial six-year-old set up a Drive-By Walk-By Joke Stand in his yard, sharing all the jokes he’s memorized from the Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids book with neighbors walking past. Watch him deliver some of his best zingers here.
- In Olympia, Washington, stand-up comedian Sam Miller is writing 100 new jokes every week and performing them on Saturday night Facebook Live streams to raise money for Olympia’s Interfaith Works and other nonprofits.
- And in New Jersey, math teacher Callie Campbell proves that Dad Jokes aren’t just for dads. She posts daily math jokes and daily math problems outside her Westfield home, giving her high school students (and the community) a day to solve the problems before posting the answers and a new challenge.
Hopeful Messages on the Street and Shining Through Windows Everywhere
- In Brooklyn, artist Sara Erenthal uses discarded items left on the street as canvases for her art, and during the pandemic her work has taken on new levels of meaning. She has painted messages of thanks to essential workers and messages of solidarity and hope for her fellow New Yorkers who have struggled with isolation and loneliness.
- In Virginia, the Doubletree in Crystal City is using empty hotel rooms to shine messages 10 stories high to commuters on Interstate 395. The simple messages—HOPE, LOVE, KIND, and a heart—are plotted out on paper and executed by opening and closing blinds in dozens of hotel rooms and turning on lamp lights to illuminate the darkness.
- In British Columbia, Bailey Grose started a community-wide scavenger hunt when she encouraged her neighbors to make and hang hearts in their windows. Within days, there were hundreds of colorful window displays as the scavenger hunt went viral. She has since started a Facebook group, Hearts of PG, so the love can keep spreading.
Wine Ninjas. ‘Nuff Said.
- And in Alberta, Canada, a sisterhood of wine ninjas are dressing up, sneaking around town, and delivering free wine and goodie bags to other women living nearby. What started as a joke is now a Facebook group of more than 51,000 women (Alberta Wine Ninjas) who want to join the community and receive ninja-delivered booze before donning ninja suits of their own and paying it forward.