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07/10/2020 12:00 AMThe harrowing impact of the pandemic has not been distributed equally across every community, with some places forced to endure more pain than others—something that struck Guilford High School rising junior Moira McGovern a couple months ago as she browsed social media.
Beginning Sunday, July 12 and then every Sunday this month, McGovern and a handful of volunteers will be outside the First Congregational Church collecting supplies that in August, she will load into a rented van to drive approximately 2,300 miles to Navajo Nation in Arizona, a community that’s been forced to endure significant suffering and received minimal support from the outside world.
McGovern is asking for non-perishable food, masks, hand sanitizer, cleaning and school supplies, and personal hygiene products, hoping to share some of Guilford’s relative privilege with a community that is still struggling.
Navajo Nation is a 27,000 square-mile tribal reservation with a population of around 200,000, covering parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. Already fighting rampant poverty and barriers to health care, people living on the reservation have faced worse COVID-19 outcomes than nearly anywhere else in the United State, with the third-highest per capita infection rate, according to government-provided data.
McGovern said that she was surprised and horrified earlier during the pandemic when, as she browsed social media, she saw teenagers in the Navajo Nation posting about the conditions there, and decrying the lack of response and aid from outside their community.
“It was just something I hadn’t heard of yet,” she said. “And so about a week after that, I [was] ranting to mom about how little coverage it was getting, and she asked me, ‘So, what can you do about it?’ And that’s kind of how it started.”
The next day, McGovern said she called the Navajo Nation government. Officials were initially skeptical that she would be able to provide any significant assistance, but McGovern said the effort has since “taken off,” as she has worked with members of the Pilgrim Fellowship at First Congregational—a group that regularly organizes charitable mission trips around the world—and others to get the project organized.
“Everyone I reached out to, surprisingly was really knowledgeable about the subject and that was really helpful,” McGovern said. “It’s definitely made my picture of Guilford even brighter and more positive than it was before, which is pretty amazing.”
McGovern specifically lauded the First Congregational Church staff members, who also have allowed her to use the church as a drop-off location, and who have experience in the kind of travel and logistics needed for this kind of undertaking.
Because she is too young to drive on her own, McGovern said she also had to approach her mother about taking the wheel for the road trip portion of the project.
“So after I kind of had put this all together, I went to my mom and said, ‘Okay, we’re driving to Arizona,’” McGovern said, laughing. “Luckily she’s very nice, and she was like, ‘Alright, I guess we’ll do it.’”
McGovern said she has recruited a handful of other volunteers to help with the pick-up and organizing of supplies, which will be accepted outside the church from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 12, 19, and 26, though she said the delivery will likely be just her and her mother.
McGovern said that through other mission trips she has taken, she has seen how other places in the country (and the world) are not able to offer the same opportunities, security, and resources that Guilford does, something she believes is vitally important for the people living here to understand.
“I grew in Guilford, and I’ve been really privileged to do so,” McGovern said.
McGovern also set up a GoFundMe site from which money will be used to purchase more supplies, and she said that she also hoped to solicit other donations of household items or necessities that remain in short supply in Navajo Nation. Any questions about the project can be directed to navajonationdonations@gmail.com.
The project’s Gofundme, which has raised a little more than $500 out of a $5,000 goal as of July 10, can be found at www.gofundme.com.