10 | NOVEMBER 26 • 2020 

essay
A “COVID Hell” Call to Action 
“W

hat America 
has to under-
stand is that 
we are about to enter COVID 
hell. The next three or four 
months are going 
to be, by far, the 
darkest of the 
pandemic.
”
If these words 
were spoken 
by someone 
who lacked true 
expertise (like, say, a politician), 
then we could easily dismiss the 
words as coming from an unin-
formed source with a personal 
agenda. But this prediction is 
from Dr. Michael Osterholm, 
one of the foremost epidemiol-

ogists in the world, who is cur-
rently the director of the Center 
of Infectious Disease Research 
and Policy at the University of 
Minnesota and who was recently 
named to President-elect Joe 
Biden’
s COVID-19 Task Force. 
Since the early days of the pan-
demic, Dr. Osterholm has been 
an apolitical and sober voice 
who accurately foresaw the 
steady and dire spread of the 
virus.
Soon it’
ll be a year since this 
nightmare came into our lives. 
How much time have we wasted 
debating the severity of it or 
how it originated or deflecting 
responsibility for dealing with it? 
Those days must be over. This 

virus doesn’
t care about politi-
cal spin; it just wants to spread, 
and it does like a wildfire. It is, 
as Dr. Anthony Fauci has said, 
“brilliantly contagious.
” Recent 
reports of an anticipated vacci-
nation are encouraging, but even 
the developers of the vaccines 
don’
t see widespread use until 
the spring, at best.
So it appears we’
re in a hold-
ing pattern this winter, anxiously 
awaiting some Big Pharma com-
pany to come to our rescue. But 
waiting cannot mean sitting back 
and doing nothing. We cannot 
afford to be mere observers to 
this crisis. There is much that we 
can and should be doing to help 
each other out. Indeed, it is our 

fundamental responsibility to do 
so, both as good citizens and as 
Jews. The Jewish concept of tik-
kun olam — to “repair” or “heal” 
the world — compels us to jump 
into action during this crucial 
phase of this virus. 
Over the course of the 
impending harsh winter, there 
are many options available to us. 
Here are just a few:
• We can make a conscious 
effort to come to the aid of small 
businesses, many of whom have 
been decimated by this virus, 
particularly the restaurant indus-
try. We can support our local 
restaurants this winter by mak-
ing a point to regularly patronize 
them, if not with inside dining, 

Mark Jacobs

VIEWS

guest column
Launching a Nonprofi
 t in a Pandemic
R

unning a nonprofit 
during a pandemic is a 
challenge. Launching a 
nonprofit during a pandemic is a 
whole other story. 
But before we 
get there, let me 
back up.
In June 2019, 
I launched the 
Detroit Writing 
Room, a writing 
and event space for 
book talks, writing workshops, 
open-mic nights and more in 
Downtown Detroit. We also have 
a team of 30 professional writing, 
photography and design coaches 
who help people with everything 
from books and screenplays, to 
resumes, websites and podcasts. 
The coaches are top authors, 
journalists, photographers and 
designers in the city. 
When I opened the DWR 

doors, I knew I wanted to give 
Detroit youth opportunities 
to learn from the coaches and 
gain mentors in fields they may 
be interested in pursuing. So, 
a few months after starting the 
business, I created a nonprofit 
arm with the mission of offering 
free summer camps, workshops 
and after-school programs for 
Detroit high school students. 
We received the official 501(c)
(3) status for Coaching Detroit 
Forward last fall. 
I spent the entire winter writ-
ing grants to fund a photography 
and journalism camp. We were 
a brand new nonprofit with only 
a concept to show, but we had 
veteran journalists like former 
Detroit News columnist Laura 
Berman, former Crain’
s publisher 
and White House correspondent 
Ron Fournier, and Bill Vlasic 
and Bob Goetz, both formerly 

of the New York Times, on our 
coaching team. Our photogra-
phy coaches shoot for ESPN, 
the Wall Street Journal and Time. I 
knew we could create a magical 
experience for youth to learn all 
about writing, photography and 
storytelling, and use those skills 
to tell stories about their com-
munities.
A dozen grant applications 

later (who was counting?), I got 
a call on March 4 that the Fisher 
Foundation was excited to fund 
our camp and help us launch 
Coaching Detroit Forward. The 
grant would allow us to buy 10 
laptops and 10 professional cam-
eras for the students to use, plus 
cover all expenses. The coaches 
and I were on cloud nine as we 
put plans in motion. Six days 
later, the first reported coronavi-
rus cases hit Michigan. It was my 
30th birthday, and I had no idea 
the champagne cocktail I sipped 
in celebration of all to come 
would be my last drink at a bar 
in 2020. 
Overnight, my plans were put 
in jeopardy. But I wasn’
t about 
to let COVID-19 destroy an 
opportunity for Detroit teens. So, 
the coaches and I pivoted, and 
we launched summer camps on 
Zoom. By making the experi-

Stephanie 

Steinberg

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