Metro Detroit teens helped others when COVID-19 stymied everything
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Abby Thomas was a high school sophomore when the COVID-19 pandemic began, turning her world — and everyone else’s — upside down.
Schools, workplaces and businesses shuttered. Traffic, except for essential workers and those going out for necessities or emergency care, came to a screeching halt.
So did the then-15-year-old Fowlerville girl’s ability to learn how to drive. She was required to have hours behind the wheel before getting her license. But when the pandemic hit, she didn’t have anywhere to go. The little driving she did there were no cars on the road to get that necessary feel for traffic.
In April 2020, Abby began volunteering twice a week at The Torch, a non-profit food and catering truck in her hometown that delivered food to people in need. She and her mom handed out food and groceries, then boxed up food for deliveries in and around Livingston County for those who didn’t have vehicles, who couldn’t get to the food truck during a designated time or were in quarantine with the virus.
Her mom, Jill, a teacher, offered a suggestion: Abby could deliver food, learn how to drive and earn her driving hours at the same time.
So Abby hit the road in her gray Jeep Renegade named Norman; her mom, in the passenger seat. She bopped all over the county, towards Flint and Linden in Genesee County, and the Lansing area. She drove on expressways and back roads, sloshed through mud and bumped along unpaved rural areas.
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While gaining necessary driving experience, Abby provided a critical lifeline to people — dropping off food, sometimes leaving the parcels on porches, waving from her car and wishing folks a good day.
A simple act during a difficult time.
“It worked out perfectly,” said the 17-year-old Fowlerville High senior who plans to attend Spring Arbor University near Jackson, majoring in criminal justice.
“I volunteer all the time and I love it. I love volunteering,” said Abby, who in December 2020 volunteered with The Giving Barn Community Outreach to deliver Christmas presents to families. “I think that as I continue to grow throughout the rest of my life, I will always try to look for the good in every situation and realize that there are still good humans in this world, even if the world may seem a little uncertain.”
“People were really scared at that time,” said Rhonda Callahan, co-founder of The Torch, who with a few others were so busy cooking they couldn’t have provided the important service without volunteers such as Abby and her mom. The group gave away thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of meals a week.
“It’s awesome, especially when a teenager steps up.”
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Abby and several other metro Detroit teens received $5,000 scholarships Thursday from Community Choice Credit Union for their contributions, with two other high school seniors receiving recognition for their work during the pandemic.
Abby, Shlok Patel of Rockwood and Sanya Gupta of Rochester Hills received the scholarships, money that will be used to help cover tuition or housing at college.
They are among 15 high school seniors who received $5,000 scholarships. Six others earned $2,500 scholarships for continuing education and four more received $2,500 to pursue a skilled trade.
“The future of Michigan is in good hands,” said Jeremy Cybulski, community engagement manager at Community Choice Credit Union.
‘Big impact on my community’
Before the pandemic, Shlok Patel was a volunteer at Beaumont Hospital Trenton, pushing wheelchairs, checking on patients and guiding visitors.
Once the pandemic hit, the Rockwood teen stopped that volunteer work. COVID-19, the 18-year-old Carlson High senior said, halted and changed everyone’s lives.
When COVID-19 vaccines came out, Shlok said he thought that was the outlet toresume a little bit of normal life. Early last year, he volunteered at a mass vaccination clinic in Wayne County, helping with registration and forms.
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The experience made him realize people in his Downriver community didn’t have as much access to vaccine clinics close to their homes or were on long waiting lists to get a shot.
Shlok told his mom, Hema, a pharmacist, that he wondered if there could be a vaccine clinic at his school to help friends and family around him. He didn’t think it would be allowed. But it was. And plans for the clinic got underway.
Shlok said he and his identical twin brother Shivam took the role of co-coordinators and got volunteers from the school’s National Honor Society — the first time Shlok said he had taken on that kind of leadership responsibility.
About 600 people came through the clinics, he said, getting first and then second doses of vaccine.
He started the project because he could see people were too scared to go out because they weren’t yet vaccinated. And he could see the families’ relief after they were.
“I didn’t really realize I was making that big of an impact on my community as I was,” said Shlok, who plans to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and study pharmacy. “It was so heartwarming … It was like something that I had never felt before.”
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‘No limitation to what we teach’
Sanya Gupta became aware of huge learning gaps at the start of the pandemic when schools closed, forcing kids to stay home and into some type of online learning.
Many struggled. As a high schooler, Sanya wondered how that had an impact on younger children, who need social and emotional learning and being around their peers in person for their growth and development.
Sanya, now 17 and a Rochester High senior, reached out to former elementary and middle school teachers to inquire about what they were noticing. They reported seeing learning gaps and Sanya asked if there was anything she could do to help.
She started tutoring. She told her friends, who agreed to tutor, too.
That’s when Sanya sparked the idea to create a free, online program where students volunteer to be paired with other students who need tutoring. The project was to make it easier for teachers, so they didn’t have to find individual tutoring for each student, and the young people could have peer-to-peer learning.
Thus, Rebuild Rochester was born.
Sanya continued to recruit tutors and develop and structure the non-profit, which took on additional projects such as collecting cans and bottles with more than $500 going to a fund for front-line health care workers.
The tutoring project started off Rochester-based, but has since taken off.
“We’re over 1,000 students now. We’re international,” said Sanya, who plans to attend the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to earn a degree in business administration.
Sanya said she and others used their connections across the world to expand the program and make a larger-scale impact. She would like to bring the idea to the University of Michigan’s campus, too.
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The program is for elementary through high school students and much of the tutoring has been for core subjects, such as reading and math. There also has been tutoring for science, language and even playing the trumpet.
“Seeing that learning, your teaching, impacts a student is so rewarding,” Sanya said. “And you can kind of see the impact that you’re making on the students themselves — even through a screen. It’s kind of cool.”
Contact Christina Hall: ch***@fr*******.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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