'Cheer, clap, yelp, bang pots': Call for all Aussies to cheer for frontliners

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, new social enterprise Frontliners has been raising money to supply health workers with essential items during this tough time.

Now, Frontliners is inviting people across Australia to come together in a gesture of support for the outstanding work our doctors, nurses, cleaners, hospital support attendants and others toiling at the front line of this pandemic are doing for us by kicking off the #Cheer4Frontliners campaign.

At 8pm on Thursday April 9, everyone is invited to “cheer, clap, yelp, bang pots” from their doorstep, windows, balconies or backyard to show their support. You can find the Facebook event page here.

Phil Leahy, CEO and Founder of Retail Global and Frontliners, spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle and revealed the reason he decided to start the social enterprise is very close to this heart.

"Frontliners was formed 22 days ago by my company when we were looking to help frontline workers. I was at a hospital in Frankston two weeks earlier, my mother was quite ill and I spent 14 hours in intensive care and the emergency department watching these people work and it dawned on me that they're going to be very challenged with the upcoming crisis.

"So, our team basically put together Frontliners and in that 22 days we've raised close to $2 million worth of product, we've delivered $370,000 worth of goods to 15,500 frontline workers via some coupons and also physical delivery of goods, which we're shipping out via our partners Australia Post."

Phil explained that starting Frontliners was a great way to keep his events company staff busy during the coronavirus pandemic as events are unable to be held.

"Being an events company, where we bring thousands of people together and hundreds of companies, it's a bit challenging to put on events at this stage. So, this is keeping our people very busy and focused while we can't put on events," he explained.

He added, "We're delivering motivation, we're delivering a gesture. These people are doing the hard work so it gives us all purpose and it's a great thing to do."

Phil explained that his communications manager noticed the trend of people getting on their balconies and cheering for frontline workers around the world and decided it was a great way to show support.

"Our communications manager had noticed what's going on around the world and at different spots like LA and London, where people are getting on their balconies are cheering.

"And we also saw an article about a group of residents in Shepparton who had started doing this and we thought this was a good way to show support."

"We just really want to show [the frontline workers] that Australia cares and we thought this is a great initiative and we wanted to put it out there."

Phil revealed that this would become a weekly event, "We're doing Thursday night at eight o'clock because it's before the holiday, and we figured that we'd want to do this weekly on the Friday at eight o'clock moving forward."

If you'd like to contribute to Frontliners and help provide packs to nurses, doctors and other frontline workers as they work through this difficult time, you can do so here.

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