​Glen Rock Coronavirus: Writer Fundraises In Virtual Poetry Slam

GLEN ROCK, NJ — Several people and organizations around Bergen County are working to raise funds to support coronavirus relief efforts, but few, it seems, have hosted a virtual poetry slam.

That was, at least, until co-organizers of GRINS — Glen Rock Is Never Surrendering — did exactly that.

In a release Friday, GRINS announced it raised $1,676 in funds that will be used to buy and deliver meals to Bergen County Hospitals during its virtual poetry slam.

GRINS was founded on Facebook on March 28, organizers said in the release. Since its inception, the group has raised more than $30,000 to buy meals from local restaurants for health care workers.

The release states volunteers on a near-daily basis use their own cars to deliver food to Hackensack University Medical Center, Englewood Medical Center, Holy Name Hospital and Valley Hospital. Meals have also been delivered to the Marriot in Montvale, where many frontline workers are staying.

The poetry slam was hosted by local writer Alice Gomstyn. The release states participants of the virtual slam gave Gomstyn ideas, which she then turned into improvised slam poems.

"I wanted to do something that would entertain people and could potentially attract money from outside the town," Gomstyn said. "It was basically improv comedy in poetry form."

The slam was organized by Gomstyn with the support of GRINS co-founders Elizabeth Kramer Carr, Terry McBride and Brigid Nonas and co-hosted by Gomstyn and Kyra Gilbreath.

"The best feeling in the world is the hearing the sound of happiness and gratefulness of the employees when you call hospitals to arrange meals for them," Carr said.