Connections - Spring 2021

COVID-19
REAFFIRMING OUR MISSION:
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
A fundamental part of the mission of Jacksonville Country Day School
(JCDS) is teaching students the importance of social responsibility. This
can be seen from our community’s participation in collecting for local
food drives, making inspirational cards for Feeding NE Florida food banks,
donating books to Books-A-Go-Go, and pop-tab collections for the Ronald
McDonald House, to name a few.
service, and she undoubtedly attributes her
daughter’s actions during the pandemic to the social
responsibility that JCDS teaches their students."
Giving back is something that JCDS students, families, faculty and staff are
no strangers to, so when COVID-19 altered daily life in Jacksonville, our
community rose to the challenge. Students, parents, and alumni put their
social responsibility commitment into action to help combat the pandemic
in a range of ways, from working on the front lines to using their hobbies
as a way to give back. At JCDS, we are extremely proud to have members of
our community help fight COVID-19 from various angles.
Dr. Samir Midani, parent to Adam and
Lily and Division Chief of the Pediatric
Infectious Diseases Clinic at Nemours
Children’s Hospital, explained, “as a
frontline worker, [COVID19] was scary
because it was unknown.” As time went
on and COVID-19 progressed, Dr. Midani
said he came to realize, “it takes a whole
community to take care of this virus. We are
all one small village. It takes all of us [and]
people have to come together during this time and take care of each other”
The idea of working as a community to help beat this virus was something
that Dr. Midani noticed from the beginning and is extremely grateful for.
During the time when PPE was short and put doctors at a very real risk of
being exposed to the virus, Dr. Midani said, “we had a lot of people making
masks and it was wonderful.”
Masks quickly became very
necessary, yet very hard to find
during the beginning of the
pandemic. 4th grade student
Neily Mallini saw this need
and decided to put her love for
sewing to use for a good cause.
Neily’s mother, Kerry, discussed
her involvement, “she found a way to do
something she loves that helped others and made the situation lighter
for herself.” Neily’s masks first went to local healthcare workers at Baptist
Hospital and then to friends and neighbors. Kerry explained that, “Neily
is in student government at JCDS so she is very exposed to community
David Cohen, father of JCDS third grader, Abe,
decided to get creative and use what he already
had around him to help fight COVID-19. Owner
of full-scale, organic distillery, Manifest Distillery,
David decided to shift his production from spirits
to hand sanitizer. “We started to hear about the
industry pivot around February or March because
of the shortage [of hand sanitizer] and by the
end of March we realized it was a much bigger
issue than expected.” In the beginning, Manifest
Distillery sold their hand sanitizer solely to nursing
homes and hospitals, but soon expanded to first
responder institutions and government agencies,
and finally the public. David explained that his son
Abe currently thinks, “it’s really cool that his dad
makes hand sanitizer,” but knows in the future he
will fully understand the bigger
picture of stepping up for your
community in a time of need.
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WWW.JDCS.COM | SPRING 2021