Jennifer Cotterman, who lives in Gananda, has been working 12 hour shifts, for 14 straight days, as a Nurse and Unit Supervisor at Aaron Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Fairport. She is on the front lines as an essential worker, since staffing is stretched.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic has required her to be at work and subject to contracting the virus, she had been sleeping there, and, of course, not  able to go home to her husband, Mark, and their 16 year old son. The couple have older children also, not living at home.

Both her husband and son suffer with asthma, and would be severely compromised if she returned to the house, and she is the sole breadwinner at the moment.

A nurse for over 20 years, Jenny said that, in searching for an alternative to staying at the Rehab Center, she tried to reach the “RVs for MDs” program that she had heard about.

“I was not able to get in touch with them after several tries. They were probably overwhelmed; so I finally decided to reach out to my neighbors,” she explained.

Jenny threw up a post on the Facebook group “Gananda Communicates.” She appealed to anyone in the area who would be willing to rent her an RV to park at her home property and be closer to her family. She even considered putting up a tent in her backyard to be closer, but the weather turned too cold.

Lea Dill, who lives in Walworth found her post, and offered her RV for Jenny to use for the duration.

“I was about to send out the RV to their home, when I found that it needed service on the hot water tank,” said Lea.

She called Johnston RV Country on Route 21 in Marion for service, so that the RV could be used. That’s when another volunteer came to the rescue.

“I explained to the woman who called for service, that our service and parts department were a little behind with the pandemic, and it might take a while for the service, so I offered to bring one of our rental RVs to the nurse for her to use at no cost, during the isolation,” said Aaron Johnston, President of Johnston RV Country.

True to his word, Johnston had the RV delivered to Jenny’s home in Gananda this week.

The Cottermans are extremely grateful to know they can still  be close, until such time as they can be back together.

“It is just amazing, when people come together”, noted Lea Dill.