Doctors and nurses are working long hours to battle the COVID-10 pandemic. That's why people in the community are pitching in anyway they can to show their appreciation.
"Thank you guys," said John Smith. "We can’t be in anymore debt to you then we are right now."
Smith is a Baltimore man who just wants to give these healthcare professionals the recognition they deserve.
"They’re our deployed, they’re our soldiers. I just feel like we should treat them the same way that we would treat any other person fighting a battle on behalf of us," said Smith.
He thought about how he could give back. It started with just people he knew.
"I just wanted to raise a hundred bucks to buy three pizzas and take it to my friends at Hopkins. I asked a bunch of friends that I went to college with if they would could kick in they said they would and they shared my venmo information and in like three hours I had 1100 dollars," said Smith.
A small act of kindness for a friend that grew into helping people he didn't even know and getting donations from people he didn't know either.
Smith used the money raised to support local bars and restaurants. He would order food and then deliver it to hospitals in the area. It didn't stop there. The word continued to get out, all through instagram.
"It sounds ridiculous but its kinda cool how it’s that bare organic grassroots level of community involvement," he said.
In just days, he raised $6,600 dollars from 220 donors and supported 11 local businesses.
"It took a lot of people to do very minimum work to make a ginormous impact," said Smith.
Now, he just hopes people will continue to come together and continue to be positive moving forward, even after this pandemic.
"I just hope a midst all this, everyone can kind of take a minute and be like wow, I can probably improve on some things in myself and to my neighbor and just be nicer," he said. "I just hope people will be a lot nicer than we were before."
Smith is hoping to do more drop-offs so if you'd like to help out, the best way to reach him is on social media. His instagram name is @captsmith2 and venmo name is @john-smith-61.
Since he's only one person he's hoping to partner with a local non-profit moving forward.
