Coronavirus: LI Woman Uses Side Job To Help Health Care Workers

LONG ISLAND, NY — Long Islanders are all finding unique ways to help health care workers during the new coronavirus outbreak. So when Holbrook resident Michele Makrides wanted to help her friend Korianne DeStefano, who works at the emergency department at Good Samaritan Medical Hospital in West Islip, she turned to her side hustle.

Makrides has side business working at Avon selling beauty products. But when the pandemic hit, she started an offer for buyers to order an extra hand cream or lip balm to be donated to a health care worker at the hospital. She was inspired by DeStefano, a longtime friend since junior high school who is working the front lines and seeing firsthand the effects the pandemic has on the health care workers.

"I'm just so appreciative of everything that the heath care workers are doing and I just pray for their safety," Makrides said.

So she started posting on Facebook and soon it spread to other friends wanting to help. In addition, she started donating her proceeds from the side business to buy more products for nurses at Good Samaritan.

Photo courtesy of Michele Makrides

In just a few weeks, she raised over $900 in donations and another $400 in commission, which she reinvested into buying 617 products for the workers such as hand creams, deodorants, face wipes, face washes and lip balms.

"Because this has no end in sight, I would love to continue to do this for them forever," she told Patch. "It feels like such as large number but it's not compared to how many workers are in the hospital."

DeStefano said that she and her coworkers and are thankful for what Makrides has done.

"[We] are so grateful to have such a good soul who is selfless and acts purely on kindness and the giving to others," she told Patch. "This is not the first time Michele has given back and I’m sure not the last. Our skin, as healthcare workers on the frontline, thank her and everyone who donated!"

However, for Makrides, she just wanted to do her part to help during this crisis.

"I think we're going through something that is so unprecedented, something that people struggle with wrapping their heads around and I think that, just for me personally, being able to take my little side hustle and using that to help somebody else, it just gives you a sense of purpose," she said.

Click here to access Makrides' Avon store.