National Good Neighbor Day 2020
For the past few years, NHHA has celebrated National Good Neighbor Day in various ways in late September. We have recognized residents who exemplified what it means to be a Good Neighbor; we hosted block parties to celebrate the sense of community we enjoy in our neighborhood; we supported our local Dallas Fire & Rescue First Responders; we donated toys to Medical City Children's Hospital and we hosted a blood drive. This year, the NHHA Board wants to focus on supporting healthcare workers, who are facing unprecedented demands and risk in the midst of the global pandemic. One local healthcare facility which has been hit especially hard since March is Parkland Hospital. They admitted their first COVID-19 patient on March 11 and opened the Tactical Care Unit (TCU) two weeks later. At the height of their patient load, they had converted five different wards to be COVID-specific. Medical professionals worked 12 hour shift after 12 hour shift, sometimes up to 6 shifts a week. Often they lived apart from immediate family and avoided spending time with other loved ones, out of caution. Thankfully, Parkland was recently able to close the TCU and start caring for patients in individual rooms. [...]