The day Match the Match happened
March 20 at 7:39 AM
Hi. So I am NOT SURE how the 4 roosters of Koller Farms are going to fare in this pandemic...just saying. Today is MATCH DAY! which is a highlight of one’s medical school career. In case you don’t know, MATCH DAY is when medical students learn where they are going for their residency training. Residency training is the 3-9 year process (in my case...don’t ask) where the undifferentiated MD becomes a pediatrician, an OB-Gyn, an Internist, or a Orthopedic Surgeon. Typically, these ceremonies happen in big auditoriums and people’s whole families come to find out where their soon to be MD will be continuing her training. Many schools have a tradition of each person putting 10 dollars in a bowl as they get their MATCH and read it on stage in front of the assembled audience. The last person called gets ALL the cash. It is basically an entire morning of hugs and a memory that most doctors hold forever.
As you know, the CDC has now recommended groups be less than 10 and that when people must gather that they maintain a distance of 6 feet from each other. So...there’s not going to be any MATCH day gatherings this year. The students found out about this on Sunday when their medical school classes and school gatherings were appropriately put on pause for two weeks to allow the UMMC faculty to plan for the oncoming Covid pandemic.
Monday was also the first day that students worked with PAI to start mobilizing food to families in the Jackson area. This whole project started b/c one of our amazing students was quarantined due of travel to NYC to attend a conference 3/13. Jazmyn Shaw (she said it was ok to say her name) was slated to be on call Saturday 3/14. She asked me what she could do to fulfill the call requirements of her surgery clerkship from home...I told her I didn’t exactly have a surgery distance learning plan ready right that second but that maybe on her call day we should brainstorm about a project she could do from home on her call day. So she started putting together a plan for a hotline people could call if they needed food. Sunday she started taking calls after PAI put out calls to the Jackson community letting people know that we wanted to get something to children and the elderly who were dependent on school and program attendance for food. We were really worried about these kids who had been on break the week before with reduced access to the school services they were dependent on for their meals.
We couldn’t stop thinking about the kids and how they would feel without a secure source of food and no clear plan for how they would get it. My kids can’t wait an hour for food when they are hungry and George makes them farm eggs, toast and fruit every morning. They have never known hunger or need and they act the way they do. Jazmyn has an incredible personal story of having grown up in the foster care system ultimately to become a nurse and now a medical student. So she has lived the life of food insecurity and hunger.
So we (she) set up an operation that could mobilize food immediately to needy families and she got her friends and classmates to help and donate. And they have mobilized food to 1000s of people in Jackson and the surrounding areas. They have overcome so many obstacles and figured out how to make something HAPPEN.
But that’s not all they have done. And they continue to look for ways everyday to help. Here’s what they are thinking about for the upcoming weeks:
#MatchourMatch--a way to use their MATCH day money to help the community.
A Blood Donation marathon--because fighting Covid virus will be a marathon, not a sprint--Rohan Pareek and Bobby May
On-going student partnership with People’s Advocacy Institute and partnership with the Boys and Girl’s Club to make large food boxes that better allow people to STAY HOME-- Alexa Engel
On-going Stew Pot support--this reaches out vulnerable elderly and homeless populations Miriaim Ebeid
Satellite Operations--see what Kathryn Lucas is up to in Greenwood! BethEnglebretson In Biloxi
Resource re-purposing--Let’s get the unused toilet, paper, soap disinfectant and hand sanitizer out of closed gyms, restaurants and gov’t buildings and out into the community. Savannah Walker
Small Business--How can we support them in the time of Covid?
Babysitting lists--a way to support the hospital community when unexpected childcare needs arise. Ana Gayle Christian
Covid Care Kits--up to date, understandable medical information coupled with the supplies to allow people to STAY HOME! Blake Littlejohn
I am overawed at the students’ abilities to work as a team, identify challenges and then overcome those challenges. Their example is a lesson to all of us that we are in this COVID pandemic together and need to be working together to fight it.
