SIESTA KEY Sew much help from community. PAGE 18
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. VOLUME 50, NO. 39
FREE
HAPPY PASSOVER!
YOUR TOWN
•
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2020
Keeping a close eye As pandemic spreads, local leaders watch for trends. PAGE 3
Delivering smiles Courtesy image
Shout it out
Meals on Wheels keeps rolling along with nutrition and a new brand of companionship. SEE PAGE 17
Michael Saunders & Co. wants to help Sarasota stay connected — from a distance — with a citywide celebration of first responders, including police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors and other essential workers. Raise a glass, clap your hands, and shout from your balcony, window, driveway or yard to show support at 6:30 p.m. every Friday. The first celebration happened April 3. Share it on social media with the hashtags #SuncoastClaps and #SRQClaps.
Whitney Elfstrom
Volunteer Lucinda Brown carries her route meals to her car before heading out to deliver and chat with clients, from a distance.
OPINION Courtesy photo
Neighbors trade cooking duties Carol Meier, 68, finds it difficult to cook for one. So Meier and seven of her friends recently began an apartment food swap. The neighbors at The DeSOTA on Second Street have swapped everything from pear tarts to matzo ball soup. “I look at my refrigerator and think, ‘What am I going to eat next that somebody else made?’” she said. “It makes us feel good about what we’ve done.”
Medicine worse than the virus One-size-fits-all doesn’t work. Freedom to choose and capitalism will. SEE PAGE 8
Bumpy skies Airport business lands hard. SEE PAGE 10
David Conway
Most of the parking lot at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport sits empty during what airport officials hoped could be a record-setting month for traffic.