Extraordinary Human Connections: Give your spirits a lift as you shelter at home

By:
April 14, 2020
Enjoy Extraordinary Human Connections online during the COVID-19 pandemic, including virtual tours or Yellowstone National Park.
Among the wonderful things you can enjoy from home are virtual tours of Yellowstone National Park. Pictured here: Electric Peak with snow. Photo by Neal Herbert for the National Park Service.

By Kristina Paul and Katie Kerwin McCrimmon

Take a virtual trip to Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is closed, but if you want to feel like you’re out in the wild, check out Yellowstone’s Virtual Tours or enjoy a symphony of natural sounds from the park.

Virtual “Love Sweet Love” from Quarantined Berklee College of Music Students

Shelbie Rassler, a student at Berklee College of Music, was eager to bring her community together amid and show that quarantines don’t have to mean isolation. She organized a massive performance of the classic “What the World Needs Now is Love” and put it on YouTube.

Get ready to be dazzled. Watch below.

Some Good News from John Krasinski

Do you need a laugh? Want to see some cute kids or some health care workers sporting cool dance moves? Check out Some Good News, a new YouTube show from John Krasinski, famous from his roles on The Office and Jack Ryan. There’s nobody else in John’s office right now and he’s certainly not a globe trotting spy, but Some Good News will make you feel like the world is a smaller place full of many good souls.

Click below to watch.

Cozy up for stories with Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton is one of the most beloved musicians in the world. She’s also a lover of books. She has long given away free books to children through her Imagination Library program. Cozy up with a child you love (in person or virtually) and nestle in for some sweet stories. You can start by listening to her read a favorite classic. Click below to hear Dolly read The Little Engine that Could.

And, here’s a bonus for adults who love Dolly Parton. Check out a wonderful podcast that explores the musician’s ability to bring people together: Dolly Parton’s America.

Cure your miseries by listening to a lovely rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables

Sung by Alfie Boe, John-Owen Jones, Barricade Boys and more.

Click below and sing along.

Have a dance party

Let some older adults inspire you. Blow some bubbles. Dance and sing. That’s what the residents of Springbrooke Senior Living did on a recent spring day. Check out a video of them in action from Denverite.

Go on a ‘Denver Zoo To You Virtual Safari’

The Denver Zoo may be closed during the coronavirus outbreak, but staffers there are still hard at work, caring for nearly 3,000 animals.

Click here to tune in for daily Virtual Safaris.

 

coronavirus COVID-19 Ready. Set. CO

About the author

Katie Kerwin McCrimmon is a proud Colorado native. She attended Colorado College, thanks to a merit scholarship from the Boettcher Foundation, and worked as a park ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park during summer breaks from college. She is also a storyteller. She loves getting to know UCHealth patients and providers and sharing their inspiring stories.

Katie spent years working as a journalist at the Rocky Mountain News and was a finalist with a team of reporters for the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of a deadly wildfire in Glenwood Springs in 1994. Katie was the first reporter in the U.S. to track down and interview survivors of the tragic blaze, which left 14 firefighters dead.

She covered an array of beats over the years, including the environment, politics, education and criminal justice. She also loved covering stories in Congress and at the U.S. Supreme Court during a stint as the Rocky’s reporter in Washington, D.C.

Katie then worked as a reporter for an online health news site before joining the UCHealth team in 2017.

Katie and her husband Cyrus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, have three children. The family loves traveling together anywhere from Glacier National Park to Cuba.