DOVER-FOXCROFT – Childcare needs shifted rapidly in March as first, schools, and then many businesses, shut down due to COVID-19. Parents had to help more with children’s school work while also working from home themselves or putting in long hours at essential workplaces each day. Childcare centers faced shifting guidelines, as well as uncertain client numbers and income. As Maine businesses slowly reopen, guidelines, numbers of clients and amount of income remain in flux.
“I work as an administrative assistant for a company that runs the medical departments of five different county jails,” said Kelly Chabot, a single mother of four from Dover-Foxcroft. Xander, 10, lives with his father, who has underlying medical conditions, “so I am trying to minimize his exposure to keep his father safe,” she said. “I don’t even get to see my son.”
That leaves Xavier, 11; Kaliyah, 6; and Malachai, 1, still in need of childcare on work days, and help with schoolwork for the two oldest. “Life since COVID-19 has been crazy,” Chabot said. “The school shut down first, and then Xavier and Kaliyah’s daycare. I had to scramble to find somewhere for them to go, since I am an essential worker due to the fact that I process payroll and am considered support staff for our healthcare providers. I got lucky and Malachai’s daycare was able to take them on.”
The biggest challenge has been fitting distance learning into an already packed day. “By the time we get home, it’s supper and then baths and bed for the younger two,” said Chabot. “If I don’t stick to our normal schedule, mornings are a train wreck, especially with Kaliyah. Xavier, for the most part, can do his work on his own with little to no help from me. But I am finding it harder and harder to make time to help the kids.”
The saving grace has been her daycare. “I send school work in with Kaliyah and they help her with a couple of pages a day,” Chabot said.
The other way family life has changed is with safety concerns. “I don’t allow the kids into any stores, or honestly, out in public right now,” she said. “We get up, drop off at daycare, I come to work, get off work, pick them up from daycare, and then go back home. If I need anything from the store, I try to make it work before I pick them up, but with all the new rules regarding stores, it’s hard. I have a pickup time that I have to follow [at the daycare] or I am charged a late fee. It’s stressful and exhausting and scary.”
Jaime Lovejoy’s Daycare has been providing childcare in Dover-Foxcroft for 15 years, but none of them has been like 2020. Lovejoy typically tends to six to eight children ages 3 months to 10 or 11 years.
“When this first started and they closed the schools, I had to think about our daily routine. I knew that was going to change because there would be school work to do and that was going to have to be incorporated,” said Lovejoy, who immediately encouraged parents to send packets of school work into the daycare with their kids.
The number of children also shifted. There were more kiddos needing daycare with schools closed and businesses open so that parents had work – and then less in need of childcare when businesses closed and parents could be at home. Lovejoy has had two to four children most days during the shutdown. With businesses slowly starting to reopen, she expects that number will go back up soon.
Always a stickler for cleanliness, she said sanitization routines did not change much at the daycare to comply with state safety guidelines. “We always do handwashing, but we had to make sure the younger ones were taking the full 20 seconds and doing it property, so I found myself helping them more to make sure. And I’ve always made sure, when the kids put something in their mouths, that it gets washed right away.”
Most of Lovejoy’s essential worker families are in the healthcare field, so she trusts them to be aware of and practicing virus safety measures. Still, there have been concessions for safety in her household. Lovejoy’s husband has done all the shopping outside the home to minimize her exposure, and thus that of the children in her care. And recently, when an online order of new toys arrived, “I left it on the porch and got disposable wipes and wiped down the box and what was inside before I brought it into the house,” she said.
Adding school work to the daily routine hasn’t been “too bad,” said Lovejoy. “They do get distracted. You’re not going to sit there for three or four hours with them doing it, because you’ve got littler ones you’ve got to keep occupied while you help the older ones. I carve it out, two or three hours a day. We do some first thing in the morning. Then, if it’s a nice day we go outside for a little while, or if it’s rainy, I let them have free play for a little while. When I’m cooking lunch, I have them go back to the school work, and during naptime while the younger ones are sleeping. So we are not doing it all at once.”
With ages ranging from 1 to 8 these days, keeping everyone entertained can be a challenge, too – thus the online order of toys and games. Lovejoy went over options with the children and let them help pick which items to order.
As more parents return to work and more children arrive at the daycare, “I can definitely tell the kids missed each other,” said Lovejoy. “Watching them come through the door and interact with each other, you can tell they are all happy to see each other and play again. I think that’s been the hardest thing on most of the kids. When you have your routine and it gets changed and you don’t understand why it’s changed, that’s hard.”
Recently, out on a walk with her husband, Lovejoy saw a former daycare kiddo riding her bike. “We were on one sidewalk and she was on the other side and we talked. You could tell it was hard on her, too.”
And Lovejoy, who has stayed home throughout the bulk of the shutdown, has enjoyed starting to go out a bit more, as well. “I’ve been out here and there, for my own sanity,” she said, laughing.
For information about Jaime Lovejoy’s Daycare, call 564-2831.PARKMAN – Everyone is adjusting and learning new ways to move forward during these unusual times. Checkerberry Farm owners Jason and Barbara Kafka are no different. Checkerberry, purchased by the couple in 1981, has added a production greenhouse and several high tunnels to extend this region’s short growing season. Organic produce was sold retail for many years, but grew into a wholesale market over time.
But this month, on-site sales of seedlings is taking place Thursday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to replace income normally generated selling to Fedco for their annual spring sale, which was cancelled due to COVID-19.
“Instead of planting one of my big tunnels in May, I have to wait until June to plant because we’ve been setting it up for retail space,” Jason Kafka said.
The virus is not something they take lightly, Kafka said. He sat through Zoom meetings with the Department of Agriculture, representatives from the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and other producers to learn best safety practices for his family, his employees, and now, his retail customers.
“We need to keep healthy and be responsible,” he said. “None of us have ever lived through anything like this before. We want to be safe and we are following protocols. We are considered essential, so we can’t take that lightly, either. I went to Etna and got hand sanitizer from Mossy Ledge [Spirits]. I’m now in the process of setting up for retail, and I have to make some signs to remind people about social distancing. Our creativity is being put to the test – that’s the silver lining anyway – learning how to cope with it.”
Some of the farm’s wholesale outlets are seeing “quite a bit more demand,” Kafka said. “I’m not trying to grow more than I have, but I do know outfits that are.” Some of Checkerberry’s employees also work for other outlets, and that extra demand is keeping them away from the farm later into the season than usual. “We’re all feeling that there’s this demand and how do we dance through this,” he said.
One employee was up in Aroostook still, packing potatoes, for an extra week. “We had one prospective employee come by, and he had actually been working at Hannaford down in Belfast. He was done there now, but self-quarantined because one of those hot spots is down there, so there are all these little ripples emanating around. I’d like to have these workers come as soon as possible, but we just have to do it one step at a time to do things properly, so they will be a little delay here. I’ve learned over the years that the ground will only warm up so fast. There’s some stuff I’d like to get done, but if it’s a week later, that’s okay and the ground will just be a little bit warmer.”
To everything there is a season, and now it’s time to plant and help produce grow. Kafka is confident that his markets will be ready when the harvest comes. “We’ve been established with these outlets for a good long time,” he said.
Asked by Barbara what he wanted for his birthday on May 20, Kafka replied, “I’d like to have my onions in the ground. That’s kind of my target date. But things are still up in the air so much, I’m just trying to work smart.”
Social distancing with employees out in the fields is not difficult, but, “working in our production greenhouse, it is harder,” said Kafka. “We are learning new habits. Here in Piscataquis County, away from the hubbub of it all, we’ve had a bit more time to just mentally get a grasp of what we need to do and make those new habits.”
While Kafka said maybe it’s been overstated, “we are all in this together. One of our customers that came up on Saturday from Freeport commented on a farm down the road where she has always gotten her milk, but she hadn’t realized she could get cuts of meat and eggs there. So there’s a silver lining to all of this, and hopefully, people realize the importance of buying things locally. We’re all benefitting. The smaller the circle of our money exchanges, paying a local somebody for products or services, that money stays in the community. So utilize our local farms and stores – and local newspapers, too!”
For more information about Checkerberry Farm, call 277-3114 or email jebkafka@somtel.com.AUGUSTA -- When one needs their job, speaking out about what it’s like to be an essential employee might be risky.
“So, I’m considered an essential worker, as we supply people with food and supplies for their pets,” explained the worker, who wished to remain anonymous. The store serves pet owners within a 50-mile radius of Maine’s capital and is considered a high-traffic location.
“The executives have done a great job being transparent about all the changes due to COVID-19,” she said. “We've been able to keep the same payroll hours, but our business hours have changed. We're required to keep track of the number of people in the store (no more than 15), which is difficult when 'Bob' and 'Mary' decide to take their family of five to go look at the 'pretty fish,' without gloves or masks, and with a few kids coughing and sneezing on everyone and everything in store.
“Because of this, and because we are trying to reduce the risk to everyone, we have an extensive cleaning schedule of all the carts, baskets, counters, pin pads, etc.” she said. “I've also learned that the best way to help protect my customers is to sanitize my gloves between each interaction. We are taking this seriously, but it has become painfully obvious not everyone is.”
This employee lives with, “my dad who has health issues already. Both my parents are taking care of their parents, whose health is already declining without the help of COVID-19. Because of this, every time I leave this house I'm wearing gloves, have hand sanitizer, and grab a mask from work if I'm there.
“The fact that I have coworkers and customers telling me that 'it is what it is' and 'if they get it, they get it' without wearing gloves or a mask or taking any precautions is appalling,” she said. “I'm putting not only myself, but my family, at risk by working, and people who go about their day like normal, without any precautions whatsoever are the reason we're in this mess.”
Recently, this employee came down with a head cold. “Mostly just a sore throat, but with everything going on, you never know,” she said. “Luckily, I had that day off, but everyone in my house treated me like the plague. If I touched a handle they'd sanitize it before using it. I drank so much Emergen-C!
“The next day I was scheduled to work,” she said. “As it was just a head cold, I was feeling a lot better but still not 100 percent. Everywhere you look, people are telling you to stay home if you feel sick, so that’s what I did. One more day to get it out of my system. When I called in however, I felt like the bad guy. The afternoon crew had also called in just moments before me, so now the managers were scrambling to figure things out, and I got the stress unload.”
Still, she is grateful to still have a job, “and so is my mom, who is now working from home. My brother works third shift and my dad is a disabled veteran. With a six-month-old puppy and two cats in the house, we are already crazy and annoyed with each other enough without the addition of COVID-19 closing opportunities to get away from each other.”
The April 9 blizzard didn’t help the stress level, since gardening is a pathway to relaxation. “My seedlings are eagerly waiting to be planted in the garden, and I need sun! I want to get my hands dirty digging out weeds and growing my own food again. Even before COVID, I was planning the garden, leaning about sourdough and canning and preserving foods, and summer will bring that. Like most people, I'm tired of winter and mud season at this point, and just want to sun bathe. But on the bright side, the birds are enjoying the feeder now. Some chickadees, nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, and eastern phoebes have visited.”
All in all, though, she said, “I’m calm but scared. I don't know if I'm being cautious enough or am blissfully ignorant of how much danger I'm putting myself (and my family) in.”DOVER-FOXCROFT – The team at Northern Light Mayo Hospital is getting ready for COVID-19, and they could use our help and support.
“One of the things I do think is a blessing for us here is being in a rural area where the population density is so much lower than even in Portland or southern Maine,” said Marie Vienneau, president of North Lights Mayo Hospital. “It helps increase the chances of success with social distancing. I hope and pray that helps us here in this county. We support the guidelines and encourage everyone to follow them. They do help and they can work!”
Social distancing is “one of the only tools in the tool chest,” said Dr. McDermott, VP of Medical Affairs and Senior Physician Executive. “We don’t know who is shedding the virus until they are sick, four to 10 days after they’ve been exposed. Social distancing will work, and may be what makes Maine look different than other places. We might be in social distancing for six to eight weeks, maybe more. Social distancing is a difficult term, so let’s call it physical distancing, but without a breakdown in communication.”
For example, he said, many meetings now take place online via Zoom, and friends can have dinner together over Skype. “We are very fortunate to have those technologies and people are finding creative ways to use them.”
Proper hand washing is also imperative. Dr. McDermott said he loves the handwashing advice dispensed recently by Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah, which was: wash your hands as if you have just sliced a bag of jalapeno peppers and now need to take out your contact lenses.
“A lot of people are very concerned about hand sanitizer, but when I became a nurse, we didn’t even have hand sanitizer,” Vienneau reassured. “Soap and water are all you need, so you shouldn’t worry too much if you don’t have hand sanitizer or bleach wipes. You can get by if you just wash your hands well.”
And while it was somewhat contentious, the merger between Mayo Regional Hospital and Northern Light Health on March 1 couldn’t have come at a better time, Dr. McDermott said.
“One of the things I would say really helps me get though the day and worry less at night is knowing that we are part of a system. That brought to us a wealth of resources, planning, materials and ability to anticipate potential problems that would have been extremely difficult on our own. I feel blessed that we’re there,” he said.
Vienneau agreed. “All the supports are there, and financially, we would have been in very dire straits had we not merged at the time we did.” The hospital is losing revenue from cancelled elective procedures and routine appointments, while savings are being depleted due to stock market losses. “It would have been very difficult for us without this system to back us up,” she said.
Community caring makes a difference
“I would say the community has been extremely supportive of the workers, as well,” said Vienneau. “Spruce Mill [Farm & Kitchen] sent cookies and coffee one day. Gordon Contracting donated N95 masks, and helped us set up our areas. And various community members are making homemade masks.”
Mayo employees are finding the community efforts, “very supportive and heartwarming at a time when they are under more stress than they may have been in their careers,” she said.
“It’s unusual,” said Vienneau. “At a time when many of our family members are home and trying to stay home, we are actually working harder than we would normally work, because the demands of preparing for this are quite great.”
To offset that unsettled feeling, it’s important all essential workers try to, “get enough rest, eat healthy, get exercise every day – all of the things that keep you going during a challenging time,” she said.
“I think one of the things that I personally have experienced that has been helpful to me, and I know other members of the medical staff have felt this, too, is the tremendous amount of support from our friends and families,” Dr. McDermott said. “Not a day goes by that I haven’t gotten a text saying something like, ‘Hey, I know you’re on the front lines. I’m thinking of you.’ That sort of unsolicited support from family and friends, through social media, texts and phone calls all help a lot.”
McDermott said he also feels blessed to be in an area where most of us can open our door and get outside without violating social distancing guidelines. While people in urban areas are stacked high in multistory apartment buildings, “we have the ability to get out on the recreational trails, go for a walk, go down to the lake or up to Borestone,” he said. “We’ve got those opportunities here in our backyard, and I think people are taking advantage of that. My daughter, from San Francisco, came home because if she was going to work from home, she would rather do it in Maine than in a crowded urban area.”
Healing themselves while healing others
While anyone who can work from home is doing so, hospital workers are in the workplace “because that’s where the patients are,” Dr. McDermott said. “We ask each other, ‘How are you doing?’ and then “Okay, how are you really doing?’ We don’t have a lot of employee turnover. People here form friendships over 15 or 20 years. They know when someone is under stress, and looking out for them is a nice feeling.”
There are also a couple of people at the hospital who are doing reflective readings, and sharing them with coworkers each day by email to provide insight, a reprieve, and to take the mind to a different place. “And humor helps,” said Dr. McDermott. “This is not something that should be taken lightly, but we try to find some levity. There are things about the ways our society is responding to this that are humorous – and laughing helps.”
Additionally, Northern Lights Mayo Hospital tasked some staff with creating a wellness handbook for employees. “It was sent out today [March 30] and has multiple links to mindfulness programs, meditation, recovery resources, exercise – access to programs to keep ourselves and our minds fit and healthy,” said Vienneau. “We asked them to develop this based on the situation we are in at this time. As leaders of this organization, Dave and I and the rest of the leadership team are charged with the support of our employees and helping them through this, being there every day and helping them, communicating with them, doing nice things for them like free food on Fridays. It’s a prolonged period that this virus will be with us. It is very important to support our employees,” she said.
“Of course, we have individuals who, based on their own personal situations, are dealing with some anxiety,” Vienneau continued. “Perhaps it’s a caregiver who is pregnant or older and has chronic conditions, and they are asking questions about that. People are seeking help and support if they feel affected, but overall, our employee morale is quite strong.”
Finding the silver lining
“Another thing that is really helping us through this is that with adversity comes innovation,” said Dr. McDermott. “We are learning to do things we haven’t done before. We are using Zoom as a secure platform to begin reaching out to patients in their homes through telemedicine.”
A lot of healthcare can be done well through telemedicine, he said. For example, a patient under treatment for high blood pressure, with an accurate blood pressure cuff at home, could safely have a follow-up appointment with a physician via telemedicine.
“In many parts of the country, telemedicine is more advanced, but all of a sudden with COVID-19, we are putting in place platforms in all primary care areas that will serve us well for years to come. I’ve got two daughters living out-of-state in urban areas, and they routinely get things taken care of through telemedicine. They get the advice and guidance they need, and it saves them time and travel. We are learning new things, which helps keep people resilient. I think some of the skills we are learning now are skills which are going to serve us well in the future.”
“Our providers are open and excited to learning new telemedicine technology,” said Vienneau, adding that after the crisis, healthcare will probably never go back to how it was pre-telemedicine.
The other thing that Dr. McDermott said he is seeing is the office-based practitioners, who are not as busy now, are cross-training for roles that they may have done in the past, like working in the hospital or in the ER.
“It’s refreshing for them to push their minds in different ways,” he said. “They are not doing something they are not comfortable with, in terms of taking care of someone sicker than their anticipated needs, but they are working in a different environment, with a different team. It’s almost like taking a vacation while at work. We are doing that now, before the surge. When we get the surge, we’ll be ready. We’ll have staff cross-trained and people won’t be trying to figure out how a system works that they don’t’ know really well. We will be ready to roll up our sleeves.”