Ontarians and others around the world offer thanks to frontline workers through innovative, RNAO-led social media campaign.

Inspired by the videos of people in Europe cheering for health workers, Adam Seelig searched online to see if Canadians were doing the same here. He saw RNAO’s call to cheer each evening at 7:30, an initiative that started on March 19. It was only three days into the campaign when Seelig brought his “dusty old trombone” out to the front porch, and his 17-year-old son joined him on tuba while his 13-year-old son played trumpet.

Two days later, Neil Deland and Vanessa Fralick, neighbours they had “never properly met,” walked over with their instruments and asked if they could join. “Their usual band is the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, so that really blew our minds,” Seelig says.

Since then, additional friends and neighbours have made appearances. The band Seelig’s sons named “Horn on the Cob” became “Horn on the Cob and the Social Distancers.” They have an audience every night, and everyone in their Toronto neighbourhood knows who the neighbourhood paramedic is, and who the nurse and doctor are. “Everyone here knows that first and foremost, this gesture is for them,” he says, adding that RNAO’s social media shares of their videos mean the performances have been viewed by health workers across the province, and indeed around the world. “We (now) have a much tighter bond with our immediate community.”