North Liberty is opening its Community Center to anyone in need of a place to charge their electronic devices or a hot shower. The center at 520 W Cherry St will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Outlets for charging phones, laptops and other small electronic devices will be available in the recreation lobby, but people will need to bring their own charging cords. “No more than 10 people will be allowed in the lobby at a time and masks are required,” the city said.
The need to maintain social distancing because of the COVID-19 pandemic also creates some limitations on the opportunities to shower.
Reservations are not available. To comply with social distancing, one household will be allowed in each locker room for up to 15 minutes, and will be asked to sanitize the showers and used surfaces with provided cleaning products before leaving. If the locker rooms are in use, guests will be asked to wait in the recreation lobby. Shower users will need to bring their own towels, but soap and shampoo is available.
The opportunity to shower at the North Liberty Community Center is one of the entries in Corridor Community Action Network’s (CCAN) daily emergency resource post that lists help available for people recovering from Monday’s derecho.
Saturday’s emergency resource post contains 17 places or services offering help, from baby supplies at the Cedar Rapids Central Church of Christ to free ice at Trumpet Blossom Cafe in Iowa City to 30 days of free storage at the Coralville U-Haul for people whose homes were damaged by the storm.
CCAN started in 2019 as a Facebook group of like-minded area residents who wanted to help people discover “all of the different ways they could help our community: volunteer opportunities, donation requests, calls to action, rallies, blood drives, letter writing and phone call campaigns, fundraisers, and more.”
CCAN publishes daily action posts that list at least five actions people can take that day to help the community. Since Monday, those posts have focused on ways to assist those affected by the derecho.
Both the emergency resource posts and the daily action posts can be found on CCAN’s website, its Facebook page and links to the posts are available on its Twitter account.
