Best case scenario

Can we please celebrate the heroes? And can we find a way to help? I'm up for the challenge. Also, 9 other things worth your time.

I’m hearing two things from readers pretty consistently now:

• Can you please find a way to celebrate the true heroes on Understandably?

• Also: I want to find a way to help. Can you help us figure out ways to do that?

OK, let’s start with a group that might one day be an iconic story, when we get to write the history of COVID-19: the people sewing makeshift masks at home in droves to make up for shortages that doctors and nurses are dealing with.

The NYT ($) spotlighted them yesterday:

At the White House’s urging, manufacturing companies are beginning to ramp up their production of masks. But it could be weeks before the new supplies start rolling off the assembly lines.

In the meantime, some of the void is being filled by legions of sewers, called to duty in a matter of days via social media and word of mouth, their skills no longer taken for granted or dismissed as a mere hobby.

They are working in living rooms, at kitchen tables and inside shuttered storefronts. They are making masks for A…