It all started with one mask. When COVID-19 first hit, I needed a mask to go out, so I made one.

COVID-19 has devastated personal protection equipment (PPE) stores in the places that need it most, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and senior centers, and supplies are getting dangerously low, especially in New York City where my family and I live.

In the midst of planning our 2020 Lighthouse Cares calendar of events, the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the globe and changed the way the team was able to engage with volunteer events and efforts. The Lighthouse Cares Committee, a team of 16 Lighthouse employees, organized other ways to give back during this time by making monetary donations to the World Health Organization, Dinner4Docs, the Ronald McDonald House Charities, and other related organizations across the globe. In addition, something that really inspired the group was the volume of individual efforts happening across the Lighthouse team in various locations. Below are the stories of four individuals who have found unique ways to give back during this difficult time in history.

In the fall of 2017, our New York team was looking for a hyper-local organization to volunteer with within the boroughs of Manhattan. After some research, they came across the Encore Senior Center, located just a couple of blocks from the Lighthouse office.

I recently accepted the challenge to raise funds to support Fred Hutch's Climb to Fight Cancer on Mount Rainier. As many know, cancer is a devastating disease, estimated to strike one in three women and one in two men in their lifetimes. Personally, I witnessed the struggle my family, friends, and colleagues endured, and I lost my dad to this terrible disease.

Lighthouse has been partnering and volunteering with the Ronald McDonald House Charities, an organization dedicated to keeping families together and near the medical care they need, through donation drives and other local activities since the dawn of the company's community engagement program. Recently, a member of the Lighthouse team decided to share her own personal story around these efforts and why she is so passionate about our partnership with this particular organization.