West St. Paul’s Wonderful Signs in the Midst of Coronavirus

Thanks to Pace’s Tire and Service Center for their support. They specialize in personal, bumper-to-bumper auto care and repairs on foreign and domestic cars and trucks.

Even in the midst of coronavirus shutdowns and stay at home orders, people do wonderful things. Right here in West St. Paul we’re seeing lots of things that can restore your faith in humanity.

Yard Decorations

People are spreading positive cheer and good vibes by decorating their yards or houses. Sometimes it’s as simple as putting the Christmas decorations back up for some good cheer.

A house on Charlton had this sign in the yard, with a flurry of tiny butterflies dotting their yard:

Another house on Bellows decorated their lamp post:

A number of houses put up signs:

For one house, it was as simple as modifying an existing yard sign for the moment at hand:

Window Decorations

All kinds of creative games have sprung up involving window decorations. It started back before St. Patrick’s Day with shamrocks for a neighborhood window walk. Then there was an entire list of things to add to your window, changing every few days to give kids a scavenger hunt of sorts around their neighborhood.

Another variation featuring teddy bears in windows has been seen around town.

On April 1 there’s a push to put out candles or luminaries to show support for our medical professionals.

And sometimes just decorating your window to make people smile is pretty great:

Sidewalk Chalk

Of course sidewalk chalk is an old standby.

Even the city got in on it, with chalk from the Parks & Recreation and Police departments:

Get outside and take a break from the news and social media! Get out there an #ChalkYourWalk like our parks department did. Not an artist? Write an inspirational message! Tag @WestStPaul in your posts!

We need to take care of our mental health just like we are our bodies. 🧠 pic.twitter.com/nPiEwNDJxb

— City of West St Paul (@WestStPaul) March 30, 2020

Trying to keep up with @WestStPaul #chalkyourwalk #ChalkTheWalk pic.twitter.com/SUrTWwF0YH

— West St. Paul Police (@WestStPaulPD) March 30, 2020

Thanks

It’s always a good time to say thank you, but especially in these times it helps to say thanks.

Thanks to our grocery store workers, putting in long hours to keep the shelves stocked.

Thanks to our small businesses, doing everything they can to adapt and keep going (and in some cases closing and hoping they can open again soon).

Thanks to the food service workers at local schools who are still making free meals available to any kids who need them:

Thanks to our teachers who are completely re-learning and re-planning how education is going to happen. For ISD 197 at least, distance learning starts up next week. And they miss you:

Thanks to everybody for staying home and doing what they can to minimize transmission and keep people healthy.

And of course, thanks to our medical professionals who put their lives on the line to keep us healthy.

Personally, we’d also like to thank our dedicated Patreon supporters who keep West St. Paul Reader going.

Stay Strong

Whether it’s sharing a happy birthday message or putting puzzles in a Little Free Library, there’s a lot we can do to make things a little easier in this difficult time.

Stay strong, West St. Paul.

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