ORONO, Maine — A Facebook group created to help Mainers struggling due to COVID-19 is growing faster than its creator could have ever predicted. So much so that she said it has become like another full-time job.
Maine Coronavirus Community Assistance already has 20,000 members and it went live about a month ago. The group's founder is Cass Clemmer from Orono.
"It's amazing," she said.
She is already wired to help others as she just started her career as an EMT. She wanted to assist her community during this pandemic and wanted to connect the helpers with those who need it.
The posts are for all sorts of things, from calls for kids' birthday cards to needing help getting baby food.
"When someone posts and says 'hey I'm running out of diapers, size you know whatever, can someone help me?' and then I see within six minutes we have like 30 comments on this one post and that somebody asked for help and within ten minutes of asking for that help they have 30 strangers reaching out," Clemmer explained.
She said it has become a full-time job monitoring the group to make sure posts follow the guidelines.
To help, she has a team of seven others who are volunteering their time as well.