When dining out, Erica Stiff-Coopwood and Dr. Reginald Coopwood enjoy the restaurants of Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman, Ruth's Chris Steak House, and Mahogany. But, mostly, they said, they cook at home.
Dr. Coopwood is president and CEO of Regional One Health and Stiff-Coopwood is an attorney. The couple was key in driving the Pay It Forward campaign, which raised nearly $474,000 for the Mid-South COVID-19 Regional Response Fund, hosted by the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis.
When a draft of Health Directive 16 was leaked to the press, Dr. Coopwood was concerned about the reaction.
"People reacted negatively," he said. "As a physician and hospital administrator, we know that the health department has all the levers they can pull. They aren't always perfect, but we wanted to support this lever. And that's where [Pay It Forward] came from. Let's change the conversation from the health department is making draconian decisions to let's support the health department's decision, and do that by supporting those who are most affected."
Dr. Coopwood said one of the first calls he made was to Elliot Perry — former University of Memphis/NBA player, minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, and community advisor for the Poplar Foundation — who pointed them to the Community Foundation. Coopwood then reached out to his fellow hospital CEOs.
Regional One Health, Baptist Memorial Health Care, St. Francis Hospital, and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare made the leadoff gifts, totaling $100,000, to the campaign. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation and International Paper Co. each donated $50,000, FedEx $25,000, and the First Horizon Foundation $20,000.
The fund was divided between Welcome to Memphis and MIFA and was used to help those in the hospitality and service industry. The campaign ran from Dec. 21 to Jan. 31.
"[The idea was to] raise immediate dollars to make immediate impact," said Stiff-Coopwood, noting that the directive fell around the holidays.
Stiff-Coopwood said she heard from a bartender who was grateful for funds to pay bills and buy groceries.
As for the argument that COVID-19 isn't spread through restaurants, Dr. Coopwood said the idea is to be better safe than sorry.
"Whether COVID was actually being transmitted as a hotspot in restaurants, you spend an hour and a half, two hours in a confined space with sometimes limited circulation," he said. "We just wanted to support the health department's attempt to reduce the amount of spread in our community because people were getting sick and people were dying."
The Coopwoods are gratified by the turn out for the fund.
"Just in six weeks time to see how individual community members and corporate donors would respond to a call — this was a great show of support from neighbor to neighbor," Stiff-Coopwood said.