For the past 8 weeks or longer, the Shelter in Place quarantine has made many of us feel like we are in a demented version of Ground Hogs Day.  And yet for some of us, it has been a mixed blessing: more time with our family, completion of house projects, meditation, relaxation. Our lives, our streets, all came to crawl. And we watched Spring surround us with beauty.  

But we also learned hard lessons about the value of health, supply chains, resources, social gatherings, coffee shops, team meetings, school, career, a steady paycheck -- many of things we took for granted in the torrential pace of our pre-COVID era lives.   

We also learned that Santa Cruz has a very strong sense of community and drive to help others.  Tonight we will spotlight 11 companies that did not sit still, that rose to the challenge to help others.   But there are many more that we don’t have time tonight to celebrate. Such as Blume Distillation that donated hand sanitizer to Native American communities.  Or Santa Cruz Tech Exchange who created a laptop donation program for K-12 children to continue their education online.   Joby Aviation 3D printed 1000 face shields for New York hospitals who were in desperate need.  Santa Cruz County and City Economic Development launched face mask programs, and primed the pump for the Ride Out the Wave program;  Looker, Amazon Santa  Cruz, MBEP, and the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County jumped into the program that delivered $432,000 to local businesses.  Bay Photo provided face shields and signage to our business community.  Organizations like Santa Cruz Business Council, Santa Cruz Local, Santa Cruz Tech Beat, and Santa Cruz Sentinel delivered news to us from the front lines.  Digital NEST is delivering online resources to underserved communities.  And UCSC’s breakthrough research tore down the walls of nationalism, and built testing and genome browsers tech for global solutions for a better world.  Yes, over the past 8 weeks, Santa Cruz has contributed to a reset of society, a reset of the norms, a reset of generosity, and it has shown a remarkable amount of ingenity and unity.  

But there is still more work to be done.  Consider how important the Internet has become during this health and economic crisis.  Watch the recorded event via the link  below.

• Ontera - the leader in nanotechnology that can detect DNA, RNA or antibody targets from swab, urine, and blood. 

• Ride Out the Wave - $432,000 raised for local businesses. Learn WHO did it, and HOW!

• Aeroasis - finally, a home solution for sterilizing your face mask, counters, etc.

• SupplyShift - a powerful no-cost tool for supply chain visibility and COVID-19 impact assessment. 

• Cruz One - a volunteer organization providing technical support and tools to our Santa Cruz county schools and community. 

• Cito Medical - a medical product development company with expertise in micro-fluidics and point of care diagnostic systems. 

• GetVirtual - tools for local businesses to adapt to the virtual landscape and extend their businesses online. 

• productOps - a Shelter in Place simulation for cities and counties.

• Idea Fab Labs - building face shields, masks, and other PPE for our community. 

• Smith & Vandiver - providing hand sanitizer to tens of thousands of those in need.

• Golden Poppy - shelter in place games for your children.