Just Talk to Somebody': UNC Students Call Local Seniors During Quarantine

The University of North Carolina's (UNC's) Phone-A-Friend program connects student volunteers with seniors in retirement communities for 30-minute daily phone calls, to help salve their loneliness during the COVID-19 quarantine, reports the Daily Tar Heel . Program founder and UNC PharmD candidate Diana Lee said she has reached out to senior living communities in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham and enlisted 70 undergraduate and graduate volunteers. "I thought it would be nice if we could just talk to somebody, and it would be nice to talk to somebody who is feeling more isolated than I am," she said. MBA student Alex Brandwein envisions Phone-A-Friend as a learning opportunity. "Whatever nuggets that I can pick up from older adults that I can absorb, learn from, and gain from their experiences is really valuable in the long-term," he remarked. UNC senior Mary McCall Leland explained that the collective sense of grief on the sudden pandemic lifestyle changes makes the need for connection even stronger. "Hopefully . . . this could change some people's mindsets from thinking about the future to thinking about today — because that's all we really have," she noted.