Meet Some COVID Heroes

By The ENTERPRISE STAFF

One thing must be said about the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its terrifying toll on countless communities, genuine heroes have emerged and made their presences felt. The Upper Cape is no exception. We asked for nominations from Cape residents of local people who qualify as heroes for their efforts during the pandemic, and the following eight (one of which is a group) are stellar examples of courage, kindness and resourcefulness during a time of great stress and uncertainty.

Jose Luis Garcia

As a hospice nurse, Jose Luis Garcia of Falmouth brought end-of-life care to a new level during the pandemic.

“He worked every day during COVID, taking no time off,” said his wife, Kara Galasso-Garcia. “He had to be tested for COVID one or two times every week because he was constantly going into people’s homes to help.”

Mr. Garcia is a case manager for the VNA of Cape Cod in Falmouth. He felt a special call to ensure that his patients could face death and the pandemic without fear, his wife said.

“He believes in keeping all negatives away from his patients. He is the kindest soul and an all-over good guy,” she said.

Janet Reid-Howe, Mr. Garcia’s supervisor, agreed.

“He’s an excellent RN,” she said. “He’s one of those workers who never calls in sick, is extremely reliable and is a really nice guy.”

During the scariest days of the pandemic, Mr. Garcia, a Marine Corps veteran, soldiered on undaunted and families often requested him for care.

Heather Burns

Heather Burns of Falmouth believes everyone needs to be part of a community, even when a pandemic seems bent on keeping people apart.

The community case manager for people with disabilities made sure, during lockdown, that everyone in her large caseload received medications, stayed in contact with their families and knew someone cared about them.

“She has put aside her personal needs, vacation time and family time to help those she supports,” said DonnaLee Hirt, her colleague and manager. “She stepped up to the plate when a lot of people did not do the same.”

Ms. Burns has worked for 23 years for Falmouth-based Community Systems Inc., which manages group homes and helps residents live independently.

“Her mission is to make sure they get happiness in their community and their homes,” Ms. Hirt said.

Ms. Burns, a single mother of two, also has taken Beth, a young woman with Down syndrome, into her home.

“Beth lives with me and my family because I believe that shared living creates a better sense of community,” she said.

Joe Wells

In the midst of the pandemic, when many were feeling glum and claustrophobic, Joe Wells picked up his trumpet and lifted spirits.

The Mashpee engineer-turned-musician played some 200 concerts for neighbors, serenading them with big band tunes and oldies.

“He played a concert every night in our backyard,” said Ann McAuliffe Wells, his wife of 24 years. “It was a real spirit-lifter.”

The couple lives in the Southport retirement community, a normally very social place that had closed its community center for months.

When Mr. Wells began his trumpet concerts it was like a light in the darkness, his wife said.

“Our neighbors and other Southport residents would gather, all wearing masks and trying to socially distance,” she said.

Mr. Wells also plays trumpet with five different area bands and plays “Taps” at funerals for a volunteer organization called Bugles Across America.

Beverly Costa-Ciavola 

Beverly Costa-Ciavola of Falmouth said she has always felt she was fated to help people facing tough situations.

A survivor of an abusive marriage, she lived with her son in a shelter for nine months before she became a volunteer and later the outreach and education coordinator at Independence House. She then earned a bachelor’s degree in social psychology from Tufts University.

Today she directs Cape Cod Neighborhood Support Coalition, which provides resources to families to prevent child abuse and neglect, where she started the group Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.

“They need resources. Their peers are all going out to dinner, going golfing, taking trips to Florida, and these grandparents have stepped in and are now raising cantankerous 3-year-olds or surly teenagers. They needed a place to get help,” she said.

During the pandemic, she shopped for and distributed food and supplies to her “grandparents” when they were in lockdown.

“Even when down with COVID herself, she was making arrangements to have meals ready for families, get a bike dropped off to someone, and make hand sanitizer and gloves available. The list goes on and on. Bev epitomizes ‘hero’ in every sense of the word. She never stops, and always gives,” said Jean McClure, a grandparent in the group.

Woods Hole Public Librarians

The librarians at the Woods Hole Public Library have helped to bring their small community closer and to adapt to changes during a time when being closer wasn’t an option.

After closing the library doors at the start of the pandemic, the staff created a plan to maintain as many services as they safely could and looked for options to keep up community engagement.

“The idea was to have a look at what the needs were. We are small, but we are well-used by the people around here, and we certainly didn’t want to let that go,” director Margeret McCormick said.

Librarian Kimberly Hare altered the library’s cooking program to work within the limitations of COVID-19. She chose a culinary theme for the new program and sought out individual spices to package into a booklet for roughly 45 participants to complete a chosen recipe at home.

“The idea was when you’re stuck home it is another way to travel, through the cuisine,” Ms. McCormick said.

During the winter, Ms. Hare constructed 12 decorative fabric birds and placed them around the Eel Pond Loop. With an abundance of weathervanes and bells in town the library put together a scavenger hunt. Supplied with pictures, residents identified specific items located throughout Woods Hole as another way to get out of the house.

Patricia DeBoer 

Few people were more affected by lockdowns and quarantine than schoolchildren. In the Mashpee Public Schools, however, community members believe that Superintendent Patricia M. DeBoer and her team created a path for student success even in these challenging times.

One parent in the district said Ms. DeBoer communicated with the community almost daily, and sometimes more than once a day, to keep everyone informed on policies, programs, schedule changes, COVID numbers and more.

The superintendent stressed that the schools’ success was the result of a team effort from families, students, teachers, staff and administrators.

Ms. DeBoer and other faculty, including the district’s COVID-19 health coordinator, Stacey Schakel, met many times over the school year to discuss health, safety and learning. She said she was proud of teachers and staff who were nervous about their own health but put the students first.

Consuelo Carroll, the outreach coordinator for the schools, said Ms. DeBoer kept student interest at the heart of all the decisions she made over the past year.

“With Patty at the helm, the teachers and staff have become the everyday heroes that our students needed in this challenging year,” Ms. Carroll said. “She was able to keep the community together, and together we have made it through.”

Cathy Joyce

While people around the country were stockpiling personal collections of emergency essentials, Cathy Joyce was delivering the goods in her carts to those in need.

Ms. Joyce started the “Mashpee Elves,” a group of Mashpee residents who did grocery shopping, prescription pickups and homecooked meal deliveries for vulnerable individuals.

The former Mashpee resident who moved to Plainville in July was a volunteer at the Mashpee Senior Center when lockdowns were first announced.

“We were given two or three days’ notice that we were shutting down, and I was like, ‘Well, what about the people who come here for meals?’” Ms. Joyce said. “And basically the answer was, ‘They’re on their own.’”

Ms. Joyce created a Facebook group for volunteers, posting grocery or pickup requests. If no one answered a posting, Ms. Joyce would go herself. Typically, a volunteer would pick up a note and credit card taped to an at-risk person’s door and would drop off the items a few hours later. The whole process was entirely contactless.

At its height, the group had 47 volunteers who were serving more than 140 clients.

“Tireless…she’s tireless and works very hard,” said Mashpee resident Todd McGee. “She will not accept a thank you. She’s too humble.”

Joanne Geake

The consensus of opinion about Sandwich Town Nurse Joanne Geake is this: If you have to go through a pandemic, you’d want Ms. Geake to lead you through it.

“She is a COVID hero, without a doubt,” said Sandwich Town Manager George H. (Bud) Dunham. “Joanne’s performance during the pandemic has been remarkable.”

In the early days of the disease on Cape Cod, Ms. Geake was the first and sometimes the only contact for people who contracted the virus.

She was among the first on the Cape to begin contact tracing, calmly asking those infected to share information about who they had been in contact with in the days before they began to experience symptoms.

“She is a totally dedicated person who, even before the pandemic, stayed on top of health trends all over the world,” said former coworker Shirley Davies. “I think she’d been preparing all her life for this moment.”

Ms. Geake has been at the forefront of the town’s COVID response along with Fire Chief John J. Burke and Public Health Director David B. Mason. She has appeared in public service announcements and has led the town’s testing and vaccination efforts.