WADESBORO — Donations of items like hand sanitizer, bottles of water and snacks were collected at Speckled Paw Coffee locations, in both Mt. Gilead and Wadesboro, and distributed to local nurses on Monday, March 30.
The program, which started a few weeks ago, was the brainchild of barista Becky Dill. She was inspired while attending Bible Study at Polkton United Methodist Church and saw it as a way to serve her community.
“Whenever I’m here at work I see those nurses at Liberty Homecare and Hospice going in and out of their office, which is across the street, all day long,” said Dill. “They’re our front-line soldiers in all of this. I went over and talked to them and we brainstormed together. They told me things nurses need.”
These things included items like snacks, travel-size packages of tissues, hand lotion, over-the-counter pain relievers, and gift cards to locally owned businesses which were dropped in a donation box outside the coffee shops.
Dill also sought the advice of one of her regulars, Sarah Tamura, who is a night-shift nurse at Atrium Health. Tamura informed Dill that area churches have been dropping off plenty of donations for the nurses, but these items were usually gone by the time the night-shift arrived so she requested that some donations be reserved just for them.
Dill, as well fellow baristas Nicole Dawkins, John Marsh, and Myra Poplin organized the donations into goodie-bags, now dubbed “Paw Packs.” Tamura picked up 30 “Paw Packs” — one for each night-shift nurse — early Monday morning and the rest were delivered to Liberty Homecare and Hospice once Speckled Paw closed at 10 a.m.
“We’ve been quite happy with the community’s response, especially when everyone has so much to worry about on a personal level,” said Speckled Paw co-owner Kyle Poplin.
Dill echoed Poplin’s sentiment, “I just want to thank the members of the community who donated. The people were so generous. We would like to continue doing things like this for the community.”
Things like bottled water, candy bars, chips, travel-size packages of tissues, hand lotion, hand sanitizer, packages of pain relievers, and gift cards to locally owned businesses were donated by the community and included in “Paw Packs” which were distributed to area nurses.
Baristas John Marsh, Myra and Nicole L Dawkins put together “Paw Packs” comprised of donations for local nurses.