A 33-year-old surfer is reminding people that hoarding supplies such as toilet paper during the coronavirus outbreak may put others in difficult and distressing situations.
Johnny Blue, a physical therapist and surfer from Encinitas, California, stood on the corner of a busy intersection in his town over the weekend with the message, “share your toilet paper,” scrawled on a cardboard sign, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. He wanted to encourage others “to be better” after a friend with an infant had difficulty finding baby supplies amid the pandemic.
“It just inspired me to remind people, listen, if you have a lot of something, that probably means there are people who probably don’t have very much of it because you took it all,” Blue said. “So sharing it is probably a good thing to keep in mind.”
Blue’s activism turned into an impromptu toilet paper exchange in which people with plenty of the bath tissue dropped off rolls that Blue then handed out to those trying to locate the product.
“This guy came here and said he just ran out and was going to a bunch of stores and couldn’t find any,” Blue said. “Somebody had given me some, so I gave it to him. He was stoked.”
In addition to social isolation and concerns over the global pandemic, many are trying to cope with shortages of basic cleaning and medical supplies, such as hand sanitizer. Distilleries across the United States have adapted their equipment to producing the disinfectant as hospitals, charitable groups, and people especially vulnerable to the coronavirus plead for help.
“We are in a national emergency,” said Chad Butters, owner of Eight Oaks Farm Distillery in Pennsylvania. “What’s the right thing to do? The right thing to do is support this community by providing something that is in desperate need.”
