NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A woman forced to hold her 50th birthday in quarantine amid the pandemic used her birthday celebration to give back to frontline workers.
Gaby Armour’s milestone birthday approached in late March, and while normally she would have a huge celebration – social distancing prevented that from happening.
“We were all stuck inside. There was no place to go. No place to celebrate,” she said.
Her family still wanted to do something, however, to mark the event.
“So a way to help out both the restaurant workers and medical people was to ask my friends to donate money and join me in giving to restaurants to make meals for health workers,” Armour said.
Still early in the shutdown, she didn’t know what the response would be.
It exploded.
In just three weeks she has raised more than $10,000 from 125 people and has donated money to restaurants like Kaste.
“She paid for 10 pizzas. We put 60 in for free,” says owner Robert Caporuscio.
He says it’s the “Italian way” to help out and he’s made hundreds more to help.
“Every day we make pizzas for hospitals for free. And it makes me really happy to do that,” he said.
Armour says dozens of hospitals have had deliveries. She asks what doctors and nurses want and tries to find restaurants that make it.
Pictures of their smiles while they eat are on Instagram.