Brett Surerus, a property manager who leads several nonprofit initiatives, and Alex Graham, a marketing adviser at Compass, lead the Shelter Island Action Alliance, which was quickly established in March to simultaneously feed those critical health care workers and support the island's restaurants.

Kurt Wenzel, novelist, book and theater critic, and the best-read man we know, picks ’em.

The Rev. Tisha Williams of the First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton would say her biggest accomplishment during Covid "was remaining relevant in a digital space with consistent worship."

After shoppers cleaned out the aisles at Montauk's only grocery store, two fishermen with a boatload of fish began handing it out to anyone who wanted it.

The volunteers and employees of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island shone bright during the pandemic, ensuring that in a time of isolation, those in need did not slip through the cracks. 

When you know his background, it's easy to understand why Michael Donovan came to the aid of thousands of schoolchildren by donating Chromebook computers for them to do remote schooling during the pandemic.

What started out as a kids' summer art program has taken on an entirely new life during the pandemic. Marit Molin expanded Hamptons Art Camp into Hamptons Community Outreach to reflect the organization's new, additional priorities: food insecurity, mental health, crisis support, and children's services.

In mid-March, as stay-at-home orders went into effect, panicked buying was leading to shortages, and customers were nervous about going into grocery stores, many food stores pivoted to meet the new demands. One Stop Market in East Hampton was one of them.

The government meetings of East Hampton Town and Village abruptly migrated from municipal buildings to remote video conference, and LTV, East Hampton's public access channel, was instrumental in hosting those meetings and virtually connecting the public to elected representatives.

With Covid-19 beginning to invade the South Fork, the Amagansett Library director closed the doors for the start of an expected two-and-one-half-week shutdown. The library would not reopen to the public for months.

"It was a very different summer," said John Ryan Jr. Covid ensured that there were indeed unprecedented logistical differences, but nothing about the commitment of East Hampton Town's lifeguards had changed.

John Daniels, the head custodian at the Bridgehampton School, is no stranger to the concept of clean. Forty years in the job not only means he knows how to take care of maintenance, but he also knows for whom he is doing it.

"I call them my babies. I get to see them all the way from pre-K to graduation," he said the other day.

The region's post office clerks, mail carriers, foremen, and other employees have been doing some of the heaviest lifting of all: processing and delivering a record-breaking volume of packages and mail for more customers than ever.

Few groups had their worlds upended during the pandemic as much as students and teachers. Put to the test, many teachers became students of new technologies and rose to meet the challenges that distance learning presented.

The photo seen here offers an early look at the general store on Old Stone Highway in Springs around 1900. The store was built in 1844 by David Dimon Parsons (1811-1882), who had purchased the land from Isaac Edwards for $100.

In the pandemic's early days, the owners of two Long Island businesses, Ken Wright of Wright and Company Construction in Bridgehampton, and Matthew Aboff, who has 32 painting supply stores across the Island, stepped up big time when it became known that a severe shortage of personal protective equipment for the Island's health care workers was looming.

When the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center got a call from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office asking if it could open its doors to provide free care to the children of essential workers, the staff made it happen.

For Carolyn Fitzgerald, a lifelong resident of East Hampton and a 30-year employee of the East Hampton School District, working in the school cafeteria every weekday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. was a way to take her mind off the harsh realities of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Being a school nurse has always been a mixture of care, compassion, and common sense. Now, you can add "contact tracing" to that list.

The annual charity Polar Bear Plunge at Main Beach will not be held this New Year’s Day, leaving East Hampton food pantries without the many thousands of dollars usually generated by participation fees.