32-year-old Andy Graf is a joyful person. He always has been. However, for the past few months, he’s had a feeling he just can’t shake.
“Just general depression,” Graf said. “It’s just heartbreaking and stressful.”
“Andy is usually a pretty bubbly person so when he tells me he wants to crawl into a hole until February, it’s like, ‘OK, this is different,’” said Kate Lester, Graf’s good friend. “This is different.’”
Lester says what upset Graf so much was watching the pandemic’s death toll tick higher and realizing we were suffering from a serious lack of empathy.
“We could all be doing our part and instead we’re pretending like it doesn’t matter and then shrugging at the results,” Graf said.
He said, after looking at the data, he realized one assisted living facility in Denton County had the highest COVID-19 mortality rate of any facility in the state.
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Graf says he felt hopeless until he and Lester took a trip to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Graf has always admired Mr. Rogers, which may explain the green sweater he often wears. He was telling Lester how he looked up to Mr. Rogers when she proposed an idea.
“If we could refocus on some of the people who are having the hardest time with this pandemic it might help us find the gratitude for what we do have and help them get through it,” Lester said.
Inspired by Mr. Rogers, they began looking for ways to be kind.
They started by targeting those folks in that assisted living facility. Graf raised a little more than $400 and used the money to buy treats for the staff.
For Thanksgiving, he enlisted the help of the community to make hand turkeys for seniors in Denton County. They created a Facebook page to share their good deeds.
“A lot of people were feeling the way that we were feeling,” Lester said.
Hundreds responded, either with a kind word or asking how they could help. Graf said, for a lot of families, it was a chance to work on a project together and then donate the finished product to someone who could use some holiday cheer.
He even gathered some folks, including the Denton Spider-Man, to put on a parade for residents at one assisted living facility.
Graf and Lester call their mission “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor, Denton,” and they’ve placed a couple of donation boxes around the city, encouraging others to pitch in.
For the holidays, they’re hoping to collect 1,000 cards and gifts to give to seniors throughout the county.
“We’re all neighbors. We’re all in this together,” Graf said. “If people will adopt that lesson of kindness and empathy, that’s how you fight it.”
As we’ve seen during this pandemic we love to look out for ourselves, but we’re so much stronger when we love our neighbor just the same.
To learn more or to donate, you can visit the “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor, Denton” page on Facebook.