Coronavirus In Minnesota: RV Owners Lending Their Domiciles To Keep Health Care Workers' Families Safe
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Families of health care workers are getting help staying safe, as hundreds of RV owners are lending their trailers to hospital staff so they can isolate but still be near loved ones.
An RV is now Joseph Stimac's home for the foreseeable future. His partner Cameron will be right outside, in the house.
"Trying to figure out how to lock this," Stimac said.
He says he'll live in the RV all summer while he works as a registered nurse in a hospital.
"It's a matter of me really wanting to protect him from anything I might carry," he said.
The RV he'll be living in belongs to Cory Lockhart and her fiance Jerry. They were strangers to Stimac right up until they dropped off their Fish House trailer, driving it from Crystal to St Paul.
"First time the Fish House ever went through downtown," Lockhart said.
They connected through a Facebook group called "RVs for MDs."
At 23,000 members strong, it's all about providing health care workers a way to isolate from family, without having to leave their property. The idea blossomed from one good deed in Texas -- Holly Haggard lending her trailer to Emily Phillips, whose husband is an ER doctor.
"I think we're just the messenger. This is a God thing. We just started that fire and other people are keeping it burn," Phillips said.
People like Cory.
"Just knowing we put Joseph's mind at ease, it's really a feeling you can't describe," Lockhart said.
Stimac says the gesture shows how powerful simple kindness can be.
"There is good that happens in the world and that's the part that moved me the most," Stimac said.
So far, 345 matches of RVs and health care families have been made.
