JACKSONVILLE, Fla — It started with a simple request, an RV needed for an emergency room doctor in Texas, but what happened next is impacting lives in Jacksonville and across the country.
"My husband is an ER physician and he needed shelter," Emily Phillips said. "We have a six-month-old baby boy, a 5-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old-son with asthma, and I have asthma, and I was really scared to live in my own home."
When Phillips posted on Facebook she was looking for an RV for her husband to stay in while he treats patients during the pandemic, Holly Haggard, a woman she didn't know offered her RV.
As the Phillips were driving home with the RV, they saw another post from a doctor looking for one.
"I said I'll tell you what, I'll give you mine, and I'll go find another one," Phillips said.
A short time later, she and Haggard launched the Facebook group, RVs 4 MDs.
"RVs 4 MDs a place where people can connect and match," Phillips explained. "So, if you're an RV owner and you want to do something for the community, you can donate that for a temporary period of time to a health care worker."
In the span of just two weeks more than 22,000 people have joined the group and hundreds of volunteers across the country have signed up to help connect those who have RVs with those on the front lines who need them, free of charge. People like Julie Hernandez in Jacksonville are offering their RVs to help.
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"These are complete strangers, complete strangers all over the nation that are coming together, and they are loving on each other and they're helping each other," Holly Haggard, co-founder of RVs for MDs said. "They're filling their RVs and taking their RVs and driving them two and a half hours out of their way, setting these up for these doctors and first responders and nurses so that they can protect their family."
With Phillips' husband is now staying in an RV, she is overwhelmed at the response their Facebook group has gotten and touched by the love that is being spread across the country.
"Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, nobody cares. It's just everyone wants to help," she said.