Tuxedo and Tuxedo Park residents join to honor Good Samaritan heroes

To express their gratitude to the front-line workers at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, Tuxedo residents have raised $20,000 to feed the hospital’s employees one day a week for the next four weeks.

Starting Thursday, April 9, 500 employees at Good Sam will be the recipient of meals prepared and aseptically packaged by restaurants in Tuxedo and Sloatsburg. Meals are being purchased so that local restaurants are receiving support while front line workers are being thanked.

The first three restaurants providing the meals are The Market at Valley Rock Inn, The Orange Top and Dottie Audrey’s.

Steve’s Tuxedo and Hayward’s Deli have signed on to provide meals for subsequent weeks.

The concept was the brainchild of Maureen Coen, whose sister is a nurse at Good Sam. “My sister explained that a quick meal is a welcome respite for the hospital workers," Coen said. "Whether providing care to patients, sanitizing the hospital or keeping the facility in tip-top shape, everyone is working around the clock to provide patients with the best care possible and to keep the community safe. I felt like I had to figure out some way to let these people know how very grateful we all are for what they are doing.”

Coen was joined by five of her Tuxedo friends and neighbors to develop and execute the fund-raising campaign and to organize the food purchase and delivery.

The funds were raised via Go Fund Me. The organizing group which calls itself Tuxedo Salutes Good Sam Heroes reports that the community’s response has been overwhelmingly generous. The $20,000 goal was reached in little over 24 hours.

One of the team said, “We were happy to work with the hospital to organize this effort. We collaborated with Amanda Levin, the Director of Philanthropy at Good Samaritan Hospital, to coordinate deliveries, making sure that we both feed the staff and show them our heartfelt appreciation. This effort speaks to the strength of our community and we are so proud to be able to help our Healthcare Heroes.”

Funds are still being collected so that meal delivery can continue as long as needed.

To get involved, use the following link to donate: gf.me/u/xvcwsc.