Thinking Back to April 2020 and GCC's First Virtual Circle

By Pamme Boutselis

Throughout the past 50 years, Global Citizens Circle has created essential dialogue around serious societal issues throughout the U.S. and across the world, especially at Circle events. I appreciate the sense of connection each Circle has given me, the opportunities to connect with others globally, and, notably, the access to people I most likely would never have experienced otherwise – and for that I’m grateful. 

One Circle, in particular, the first virtual Circle actually, made a marked impression on me at a time when we were all feeling especially vulnerable. I invite you to think back to where you were in early April 2020 and consider what your mindset might have been. As for me, I was working from home for several weeks at this point, having gone remote for what we thought would be just two weeks as the coronavirus ramped up stateside. Before March was out, though, the university I work at was partnering with the city to provide overflow hospital space on our campus. 

The mom of four now-grown kids, two of my sons lived local to me in New Hampshire, one with his wife and two recently adopted kids – and a baby soon to join their family that summer – and the other with his wife, also pregnant and due in May. My daughter, her husband and two kids had just moved back from Vermont to the town where she’d grown up (and where I still live). My youngest lived in Brooklyn, where he and his girlfriend worked in hospitality. 

Just a few days after NYC shut down in mid-March, my youngest son tested positive for Covid-19, and his girlfriend also did just a week or so later. In those early days, of course, there were no vaccines, and the uncertainty of the virus’s severity was incredibly alarming, with media stories of deaths worldwide coming at us daily. 
 
The length of time those diagnosed with Covid-19 had to quarantine was much longer than it is today. As our family in Brooklyn remained isolated in their apartment, we pondered how to get them safely back to NH once they were able to go out again. It was a surreal time, and one like nothing none of us had ever experienced before. 

Like many, I was scared – and watching the news each day with growing concern. And then I received an email from Global Citizens Circle, telling of a virtual Circle planned for April 7, 2020: “Connection & Action in Uncertain Time.” Having witnessed the power of an in-person Circle firsthand, I wondered what this might feel like online, particularly as we were all just beginning to get our feet wet in this new digital meeting space. But I knew I needed to be on that call. 
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Until now, most of what I knew about this global pandemic was what I saw in the media and briefly heard from a friend or two across the sea. April 7th brought this all home, allowing me to bear witness to what others were experiencing in a way I never could have imagined. As participants joined the Circle, there were a few that I knew, but so many others coming together from throughout the world.  

Two people will always stay with me. Ralph Zhang, a man in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, China, a place I’d only recently become acquainted with via the news. His city had been released that day from a two-plus-month lockdown – and as he spoke with us, his face close to the computer screen, what he had been through over the past few months was evident with every word and facial expression he shared. It was haunting in many ways, but I also recognized that the virus had advanced earlier in that area. We had not yet entered into that stage yet in the U.S., although we were certainly heading there. While Ralph Zhang’s experience gave me trepidation, it also gave me hope; that there would be light eventually as we continued down this tunnel. 

Another man shared what he was witnessing – this time, more local in Manhattan. Although I don’t recall his name, I do remember what he had to say. He spoke of living near one of the big hospitals in the city, and on his noontime walks each day seeing the refrigerated trucks – something I had heard about and seen pictures of in the news. This was where the remains of people who had passed from Covid-19 were being housed. Hearing this took my breath away, lending credence to what I had already known to be true but now cementing it solidly as something real happening not too far away. It added to my urgency in wanting to get my son and his girlfriend out of the city as quickly as possible. It also grew the empathy I felt for those who died away from loved ones in those hospitals, for those who didn’t have an opportunity to say good-bye, to mark their deaths in the ways we normally might, or to grieve with others. I thought about the healthcare workers experiencing all of this and what the long-term effects would be on each of them – and the man who walked by those trucks each day. 

And while both of these accounts I shared – along with those I haven’t – might have you thinking this was a Circle I may have wanted to avoid – it was completely the opposite. These were scary times and I had been on my own in my house, working remotely, connected with friends and family virtually but feeling cut off from the world in so many ways. I could take in news reports each day but this didn’t compare at all with hearing experiences firsthand from people throughout the world. It gave me a sense of connection – of understanding that this truly was a global pandemic that affected us all in a way that I hadn’t felt as deeply before. It put faces and sometimes names, along with countries, cities and towns in my heart and head, reinforcing how important it was to work together to come out the other side of this global crisis.

I know Global Citizens Circle has always been engaged in connection and conversation, no matter how hard or uncertain the times are. I’ve borne witness to this time and time again. But as I think back to that day in April 2020, when I felt quite scared and often alone – GCC came through in a big way offering connection and potential action to help us get through that very uncertain year. And I’m grateful not only for that day but for all of the virtual Circles since that allow us to connect regularly from so many places globally, to connect and communicate no matter what we are facing. ​

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Pamme Boutselis is an award-winning writer and content producer, currently serving as a senior director of content marketing and a communication adjunct at Southern New Hampshire University. She loves hearing and sharing stories. As a writer spanning a 25-plus-year career, her work has been featured in print and online via news media, career and education-focused blogs, regional magazines, technology publications and more.  

A serial volunteer, Boutselis has been a TEDx organizer since 2013 and a speaker coach. She’s been fortunate to work with dozens of nonprofits throughout the years and serves as a communication advisor for Global Citizens Circle. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle.

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As I think back to that day in April 2020, when I felt quite scared and often alone – GCC came through in a big way offering connection and potential action to help us get through that very uncertain year.
​                                                                                                      -Pamme Boutselis