By Kate Hill

Staff Writer

On Sunday, March 29, a caravan of around 20 cars and a police escort drove past Hamilton’s Community Memorial Hospital (CMH) in support of the staff’s continued efforts to fight COVID-19.

As they passed, participants honked their horns, waved signs and shouted “thank you” to hospital workers assembled outside.

CMH primarily serves a population of 45,000 people in 27 communities throughout Madison County and beyond, offering services such as 24/7 emergency room care, urgent, primary and specialty care, as well as inpatient care and surgical procedures.

“To see the community banding together and creating this caravan means so much to Community Memorial staff, and I am honored to have witnessed this act of solidarity,” said CMH President and CEO Sean Fadale. “The support and generosity of our community is necessary now more than ever. We are here for our community through this unprecedented time, and [Sunday] we saw that our community is here for us, too.”

According to CMH Marketing and Development Coordinator Meghan Dougherty, approximately 30 to 50 employees were working at the hospital at the time of the caravan drive-by.

“In preparation for the surge of COVID patients, elective procedures were canceled, per the recommendations of the governor,” said Dougherty. “At this time, CMH [has] had to reduce staff, but [it] is also cross-training nurses in new settings, to ensure we are adequately prepared for the expected outbreak locally.”

Hamilton resident Corey Mosher organized the March 29 event, as well as another CMH drive-by on Saturday, April 4.

“Like everybody else, I would like to help out, but I don’t know exactly how,” Mosher said. “I saw that New York City [residents] . . . were making noise in support of health care workers, and I thought it would be cool to do something around here. I put it on Nextdoor Hamilton and told my kids as we were headed [out] that it might just be us and maybe a couple of other people . . . but we had more than just us; it was really amazing.”

The organizer is also spearheading an initiative to help purchase meals for the hospital staff.

According to Mosher, Fadale and Town of Hamilton Supervisor Eve Ann Schwartz approached him with the idea as a way to provide additional support to local health care workers.

“I have started a GoFundMe for those who would like to purchase a meal for the staff at CMH,” Mosher wrote in a March 30 Facebook post. “All funds will go to the hospital to buy dinner for their staff from local restaurants. What a great way to safely help out our local restaurants as well as show appreciation to the health care workers.”

To contribute, visit the “Meals for Hamilton CMH” page on gofundme.com.

To view a video of the community caravan, visit facebook.com/Communitymemorial .

For COVID-19 information from CMH, visit communitymemorial.org/coronavirus .