It’s almost like magic.
Mary Scott Buck posted a request for donations of appliances in the Calloway County Collective Facebook group one recent summer afternoon. In what seemed like minutes, Buck’s phone rang; a donor had found a refrigerator she didn’t need and didn’t want to go to waste. Not too long after that, two men pulled up in front of the Calloway County Collective office on Ash Street and unloaded a refrigerator.
“It’s so funny because so much of the time, it will be something where I think, ‘Do we need that,’” Buck said. “All of a sudden, someone will be like, ‘Do you have this,’ and then I’m like, ‘Yes, we do.’”
These little moments have defined the movement that Buck started in March as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Buck, a jewelry designer by trade, began the Calloway County Collective as a Facebook group for people to post resources and connect with the community. By early August, the group grew to more than 5,100 people.
“I think that what I felt when all of this [COVID-19] was going on is that people needed help and people also needed relief,” she said. “This has been stressful, scary. People were having a hard time with so many things.”
Many of the early posts focused on where people had found toilet paper, meat, or cleaning supplies, all of which ran in short supply during the early weeks of the shutdown.
Collective members made Google Sheets documents that listed grocery and restaurant hours and posted them in the group. Those little things that people had taken for granted, group members saw needs and filled them.
From there, Buck and her volunteers went grocery shopping for those whose health or living conditions made it difficult to go to the store. The masked up, bought the groceries, and dropped them off at people’s houses. Along the way, she posted photos in the Facebook group, and those photos seemed to provide a small ray of light in an otherwise dark time.
It’s hard to keep up with everything the group has done since March. While Kentucky remained shut down, they organized car parades by the nursing homes to show the residents that people cared when residents could not have any visitors. They fed hospital workers, paramedics, police, and other first-responders. They worked with the local school systems to deliver meals to students. People posted in the group about where to drop off donations for Blessing Boxes that were already established. And they provided smiles during a time when smiling, or even grinning, seemed almost impossible.
“One of the most amazing things has been every time help has been needed, help has been offered,” Buck said. “It’s one reason why we are still going. We can help people that way. We are helping each other.”
When people asked about how to find fresh produce or where to find meat, Buck asked around. In only a few days, she had located a local farmer who was willing to sell hogs and beef. She worked with a local farmer to secure a place for a community garden that’s now overflowing with produce, enough so that now Buck and Collective volunteers are planning to can and freeze excess. She posted a call for people to donate canning jars, also in short supply at the store, and people appeared with boxes of jars and lids. They’re now waiting to find a space and someone to help lead the effort.
Again, magic.
Or simply, kindness in a community.
By working together, the community is taking care of the community. In a time of intensive political divisiveness, Buck and the Calloway County Collective have brought people together as they’ve searched for items or resources.
“The truth is that I didn’t do all this myself,” Buck said. “I would not imagine myself doing all of this.”
Buck has drawn from a pool of volunteers who help when needs are posted. Volunteers staff their office on Ash Street two days a week, and they rally when they see needs. One volunteer is an unemployment specialist who is helping people file claims. Other volunteers sew masks, mix up disinfectant, organize supplies, or do anything that needs to be done.
“I have had lots of help,” Buck said.
Those helpers include people like Emily Turbin, Colleen Anderson, Kathy Skelton, and Kristy Jackson—all of whom have filled any role that Buck has needed. They’ve all seen needs and jumped right in.
Anderson, who works in the Career Services office at Murray State, said she messaged Buck online to see if she needed any help. From there, Anderson was hooked. “The first time I came, we were filling bottles with disinfectant,” she said. “We were going as fast as we could to fill them.”
Skelton became involved after she contacted a friend who had hand sanitizer that he could donate. She told Buck that she would help. “She said, ‘I want them,’ and I said, ‘I’ll bring them back,’” Skelton said. “And I’ve been with her ever since.”
Jackson cleans houses, but the shutdown during the pandemic gave her unexpected time off, so she decided to volunteer.
Buck doesn’t want all the credit for the Collective’s work. When Peco Signs nominated Buck to have a yard sign made for her efforts, she turned around and nominated her volunteers. It’s just how big her heart is.
“I can’t stand to see anyone suffering,” she said. “My dad was the fire chief. My mom was a teacher. My parents were both service oriented, so it really was something that I grew up with, watching people take care of other people. My mom bought shoes for kids. My dad kept people safe. That’s where my heart is. Making sure people are OK.”
In the early months of the pandemic, volunteers mixed up buckets of hand sanitizer and disinfectant, both of which were in short supply in stores. Buck connected with someone who could order disinfectant in bulk, and her crew of volunteers tirelessly mixed and bottled it. The Collective then sold the bottles to those who needed it.
Stores donated hand sanitizer and personal items, which the Collective made available for people to buy; however, if someone could not afford items and needed them, the Collective provided the items to them free of charge. In addition, volunteers made masks and donated for the Collective to sell.
As summer heated up, people posted requests for fans or air conditioners. One woman posted that she did not have running water, and people posted that they were concerned about losing their housing. Buck and her volunteers have attempted to connect people and find resources.
“There are just so many people that are experiencing difficulties that it seems like the right time to be kind,” Buck said.
One recent afternoon, a handful of people stopped by to buy masks to prepare their children for returning to school. One person asked Buck and her volunteers if anyone needed a window air-conditioning unit, opened her checkbook, and wrote a check.
Again, magic. Or the kindness of a community.
Buck can rattle through the needs of the community without even stopping. She’s talked with people who haven’t had a bed to sleep in despite having good jobs, or people who are facing high rent, or people who are simply struggling during uncertain economic times.
“At this point, it’s so much that we cannot keep up with it,” she said.
But that doesn’t seem to slow her and the Collective down. Although she’s not sure of the Collective’s future, she remains sure of her determination to help others. Skelton says Buck has a hard time of saying “no” to anyone in need.
“A lot of what we are doing is related to the pandemic, but I think the financial ramifications of this situation might be long term for people,” Buck said. “There’s so many people asking for help every single day that I can’t even possibly talk to all of them.
“Like when I leave here, I’m actually going to Walgreen’s to pay for a prescription for someone who spent two hours on the phone waiting to hear from someone in an assistance program that she thought could help her but they can’t help. She still needs her medicine and cannot find anyone to help her pay for it, and they don’t have the money. There’s things like that that fall between the cracks of the assistance that’s there. As long as we can come up with some kind of funding or way to raise money or do something, we can do something.”
It’s these instances that keep Buck and her volunteers going as they continue to grow kindness in their community.
The Collective located at 203 Ash St. and is open from 1-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. When it’s not open, people can post in the Facebook group to ask for recommendations or to let others know that they have extra items for sale or donation.
