Akron Law student launches website to pair shut-ins at risk from COVID-19 with healthy volunteers

A new, free website is pairing healthy young adults in the Akron-Canton community with older adults or at-risk individuals who need help during this time of COVID-19 social distancing and sheltering in place.

“The younger volunteers can offer to pick up groceries or prescriptions, deliver a homemade meal, or just check in on the person by phone every couple of days,” said Briana Vamosi, the website’s creator.

Vamosi, originally from New Franklin, just south of Akron, is a student at The University of Akron School of Law and has also completed three years of medical school at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

When she learned recently that some UC medical student friends had launched a Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky COVID-19 match website, she checked to see if anything like it existed in Akron. Finding nothing, she got in touch with her friends about how they had done it, and the next morning she started working on an Akron version.

“It’s had a great response, especially from students at the law school,” she said. “On the other side, we’re trying to reach out to pregnant women, obviously anyone over the age of 65, or anyone who has a co-morbid condition that puts them at a higher risk.”

About 50 people have signed up so far, she said. After an initial burst, activity on the site has slowed. She added a phone number to make the service more accessible for people who aren’t online, and she is trying to get the word out to organizations that support older people living independently.

Meanwhile, she remains on an accelerated track to complete her Juris Doctor in 2021, after which she will return to Cincinnati to finish her M.D. And her talents don’t stop with medicine and the law. This was the first website she ever built.

Volunteers and people in need can sign up on the Akron COVID-19 Match website, or by calling ‪234-281-3845.