As governments have instituted social distancing policies throughout the world, countless workers in the health care, retail, and service industries put their lives on the line every day by keeping essential societal functions in place.
This week, Vancouver, BC-based Gratitudo announced the North American launch of its free app that helps promote a sense of community during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Every day, the Gratitudo application will countdown to the “7PM Cheer” – a nightly ritual wherein people in every city take to their windows and balconies to cheer on the frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event begins each night at 6:58PM, where a special pre-show highlighting heroes from your local community will be shown.
At 7PM, the group cheer will begin, followed by a user-voted song of the night, which can be sung together in karaoke fashion as the words appear on the screen.
After the cheer and song, the application will close by highlighting a frontline responder or “Hero of the Day” selected from a variety of submissions.
Karim Ben-Jaafar
“That’s why we built Gratitudo, to support and celebrate the very best in our nature”
As the cheer was a grassroots movement, Gratitudo aims to promote its adoption and continue to keep the focus on the frontline heroes and away from commercial brands looking to take advantage of this movement.
“That’s why we built Gratitudo, to support and celebrate the very best in our nature,” said Karim Ben-Jaafar, President at Beanworks, an accounts payable automation platform that co-sponsored the initiative.
The project is entirely self-funded with the application being 100% free with a zero advertisement policy.
“COVID-19 is an unprecedented event in our lifetime. Just as many of our grandparents were formed by their experiences during the Great Depression, this generation may be indelibly marked by what we are living through right now,” said Ben-Jaafar.
“What has always struck me as remarkable from the tales told by those who lived through the Great Depression was how often those stories were punctuated with moments of generosity, charity and kindness. That spirit of appreciation has not gone away, as evidenced by the 7PM cheer,” he added.
By supporting the cheer and sharing daily stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, Gratitudo seeks to affirm that physical distancing doesn’t have to mean social distancing.
The application will launch internationally on Thursday, April 16.
Disclosure: This article includes a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
The creativity and togetherness of social distancing on the web
