College Student Begins Nationwide Effort To Help Amid Coronavirus

ORLAND PARK, IL — What started as a simple way to help an older family member get through the coronavirus pandemic has turned into a national movement to deliver groceries and other needed items for those at risk begun by Orland Park resident and University of Alabama student Michael Arundel.

Arundel was still at school, a week before spring break began in early March, when coronavirus numbers were first starting to rise in the United States and the spread of the disease caused by the virus was declared a worldwide pandemic.

"I was on the phone with a family member. She's a senior," said Arundel, a 2017 alum of Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park. "She was very worried, so I told her I would shop for her when I was home from spring break."

"I shopped for her and her friends, found I really enjoyed it and felt like I was providing her a sense of security," he said. "She was grateful and I was grateful to do it."

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Later that week, when Arundel and his friends from the south suburbs learned they wouldn't be heading back to their college campuses yet due to the spread of the virus he thought "why can't we just provide this service for the community as a whole."

Arundel then texted 20 or so friends and "they all said yes."

"I put the idea on Facebook and it had 40,000 views in 48 hours," Arundel said.

Then came "Leave it to Us," a non-profit Arundel called the effort as he and his friends would shop for those in need in Orland Park, Tinley Park, Mokena and Palos Park.

Their website lists five simple steps as to how their process works: via Leave It To Us

1. Create a list of groceries, toiletries and prescriptions needed.
2. Call or email the coordinator for your area (email is preferred).
3. Leave your address.
4. Volunteers shop for the items.
5. Items will be delivered. Review your order and pay for your goods upon delivery.

Soon after they established, volunteers began coming in from throughout the Chicagoland area, and now Leave It To Us has 14 chapters throughout the United States. The ones in Chicago and Tuscaloosa, Alabama — Arundel's college town — are already active with volunteers out shopping.

"I never expected this to be anything outside our community, but I'm happy it has," Arundel said. "It has really given me and the others involved an opportunity to help."

This all in less than a month.

Publicity has helped the effort reach parts of the country Arundel never thought possible.

"Michael, thank you for the movement you started. All of Chicagoland is proud of you," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during one of his recent daily news briefings on the spread of the coronavirus in Illinois. Arundel has also been named a "Hero of the Day" on NBC's Today Show.

He's already heard from people who want to volunteer in more than 25 states.

"It really has been like a movie this past month," Arundel said, noting he received more than 400 emails and "a ton of calls" in the hours after Pritzker mentioned him by name. "I wake up every morning thinking how I did not know this could impact this many people in this short of a time."