Coming together

COEUR d’ALENE — In one week, Courtney Sohler gathered enough gifts to fill 120 baskets for the Kootenai Health COVID staff.

But the Coeur d’Alene woman insists she didn’t make it happen alone.

She got lots and lots and lots of help.

“This was the whole community coming together,” she said.

Sohler decided she wanted to do what she could to honor health care workers on the frontline of the coronavirus battle — “to show our local heroes we’re behind them."

So, she started calling businesses, explaining what she was doing, and asking for help.

The response? Better than even expected and Sohler had high expectations. Pretty much everyone said yes, absolutely, and pitched in.

Gift certificates, hair care products, handcrafted jewelry, coffee, mugs, scarves and treats arrived. Via a social media post, Sohler let folks know she had a basket outside her home where they could donate. They did, and filled the basket a few times.

Contributions came from people throughout the community. She and her family even made a few pick ups.

“It was definitely a beautiful thing,” she said.

Sohler said the country is so divided over politics, over masks, that she wanted to “show everyone we could still be one and still stand behind something together.”

She plans to deliver the gift baskets next week.

“They’re working so hard,’ she said. “They’re going through stuff I couldn’t possibly understand.”