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www.FredericksburgParent.NET 31 Stafford Hospital, the Outpatient and Emergency Center at Lee's Hill and other locations. Mary Washington Healthcare collected enough masks that the healthcare system was able to distribute some to outside community groups, including the Rappahannock Regional Jail. Early in the pandemic, the A. Smith Bowman Distillery donated hun- dreds of bottles of hand sanitizer to be used wherever they were needed. Mary Washington Healthcare's Innovation Council brainstormed the best way to distribute the sanitizer, and once volunteers and Project Search stud ent interns were allowed back into the hospital in August, they helped fill and label 10-milliliter bottles with this locally made sanitizer for distribution at hospital entrances. SUPPORTING HEALTHCARE WORKERS As the pandemic shut down schools and led individuals to sequester in their homes, healthcare workers still needed support as they came to work every day. "They were taking care of the patients," Shell said. "We had to make sure we took care of them." Jones and her colleagues sent out surveys to gauge the need for childcare among employees. Shell said it was important to make sure nurses and other workers had some form of work-life balance and could talk about their own fears of catching or spreading the virus. As the 2020-21 school year opened to 100% virtual learning across the Fredericksburg region, Mary Washington Healthcare's childcare facility, Kids' Station, stepped up to help families with school-age childcare and the needs of virtual learners. In September, Kids' Station teachers set up virtual learning stations to provide daily support for the various needs of more than 20 kindergarten through fifth- grade children within the center, which serves healthcare workers and other members of the community. A MISSION TO CARE For Mary Washington Healthcare employees, 2020 was defined not by fear but by pride. "We pride ourselves on caring for our community, and we did that," Shell said. "This pandemic has stretched us outside of our comfort zone. We have taken on new things, and we have learned from it." Jones was impressed at how the entire organiza- tion banded together as a family would to respond to the crisis. "COVID-19 has drastically changed our world in many, many ways," she said. "It's times like these that you see that we are all in this together." "They were taking care of the patients... we had to make sure we took care of them." "Everything was unknown... but we knew we had to work together..." Sponsored Material