NC State football coach Dave Doeren gives lunches, encouragement to Rex employees
Random acts of kindness have been happening all over as people try to find bright spots during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That kindness has been on full display across the Triangle and extended Tuesday to the N.C. State football program.
Tuesday afternoon, Doeren and his wife, Sara, showed staff members at UNC Rex Hospital that the Doeren family is thinking of them. The Doeren’s purchased lunch for employees at Rex and wrote personal cards to each person with the message ‘thank you for everything that you do for our guys and for our community.’
N.C. State assistant athletic director for communications, Annabelle Myers, told the N&O in an email that the Doeren family provided lunches from Moe’s Southwest Grill to 100 staff members at the hospital.
Rex is located two miles from Carter-Finley Stadium, where N.C. State plays its home games.
They selected Rex mainly because of the care the hospital provides to members of the football team.
“They wanted to do it at Rex because that’s where our players are taken if they have to go to the ER or anything,” Myers wrote in an email.
Doeren could not be reached for comment.
The meals were distributed throughout different departments of the hospital. Some went to the emergency room area, some went to the intensive care unit, where coronavirus patients are being treated. Alan Wolf, media relations manager for Rex Healthcare, said the hospital has received endless donations like the one the Doeren family gave on Tuesday, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by the staff.
“It’s a stressful time to be at the hospital,” Wolf told the N&O on Tuesday. “These are folks on the front line of helping patients through this pandemic. To have an outpouring of support from people like coach Doeren and those in the community who have donated all sorts of food, lunches, meals, it’s been an amazing thing to see.”
Unlike those who can stay home, the staff at Rex and medical centers across the country are working on the frontlines daily. To have someone like Doeren provide meals and encouragement, goes a long way.
“It’s thoughtful, it’s generous and it’s heartwarming,” Wolf said. “When you’re in the hospital for however long your shift is and all of a sudden there’s a boxed lunch that a football coach donated, it means the world.”
Wolf added that on Wednesday and Thursday, the Dusty Donuts food truck will offer free servings of mini donuts to staff at Rex. Also on Wednesday, the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation will deliver 400 meals from Ashley Christensen Restaurants.
