From distillers making hand sanitizer to biker clubs delivering meals, there’s a lengthening list of made-in-the-North good news stories coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a newly released briefing note from the Northern Policy Institute, entitled Care to Share? Helping Our Northern Neighbours during COVID-19, the various actions being taken across the region show that everyone can play a role in being innovative, and in an incredibly short time. The crisis has only underlined the power of social networks and creating connections, according to the paper, and continuing to connect with individuals after the pandemic could will be important to efforts such as creating welcoming communities.

Care to Share?, one of several COVID-19-related publications to be released by NPI in the next few weeks, was authored by Amanjit Garcha and edited by Rachel Rizzuto.

“We really, truly, all have a role to play,” Rizzuto told The Sudbury Star. “Every little thing matters, even if it’s just staying inside.

“Social networks and the creating of these community connections can be a very powerful thing and I think it’s something we need to continue to tap into. For example, we have new arrivals coming to our communities all the time. How are we using our connections to make sure they are properly welcomed and have those supports? We can use them for other things.”

NPI highlighted several organizations which have gone above and beyond in these trying times, including Sudbury’s Warriors biker club, which is helping deliver meals to seniors that rely on Greater Sudbury’s Meals on Wheels program; big corporations such as Vale and Cementation, as well as secondary and post-secondary institutions supplying masks, respirators, protective equipment and other supplies to their local hospitals; Loblaws, Metro, Canada Post and other chains, which are designating the first hour of opening for seniors and vulnerable individuals, such as those who are immune-compromised; distilleries such as Crosscut in Sudbury and Rheault in Hearst (partnered with Pepco), which are working to produce hand sanitizers; businesses offering free, online martial arts classes for kids and families to help stay connected to one another; and the Canadian Mental Health Association for Sudbury and Manitoulin, which offers an online peer support tool called the Big White Wall.

“Across the globe, social networks have rallied together to overcome the grievances caused by COVID-19,” Rizzuto said. “A lot of individuals have been reaching out to their own networks and to strangers in any way that they possibly can, so we wanted to know, what are the ways that Northern Ontario has come together? There’s tons of stories out there and we really wanted to highlight, across Northern Ontario, just a smattering of those connections being made.

“I think Northern Ontario has a lot of strength that we can realize, in several different ways, even if it’s an individual or a post-secondary institution or a business. I think it’s just tapping into that creativity, and I know we can do it.”

Separated as they are by time and distance, Northern Ontario communities can still look to their neighbours for potential solutions to their problems, Rizzuto said.

“We’re not just that one community that has issues. We can look to others to see what they have done and take those practices and implement them here, as well. We have to remember to also look at what others are doing.”

To read the entire briefing note, visit www.northernpolicy.ca/care-to-share.

bleeson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ben_leeson