((PKG)) ALONE TOGETHER -- HOPES 
((TRT: 04:52)) 
((Topic Banner: Alone Together: Hopes)) 
((Reporter/Camera: Esha Grover, Vero Balderas)) 
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))  
((Map: Fairfax, Virginia; Alexandria, Virginia; Cherokee, 
North Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina))   
((Main characters: 4 Female, 2 Male)) 
((Text on screen: Hope for a better future emerges as US 
COVID-19 vaccination rates increase.)) 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Nicole McKinney, Paramedic, Buncombe County 
Emergency Medical Services, Asheville, North Carolina)) 
I can look at like the pandemic time as being a blessing 
because I really think that it helped myself and a lot of 
people that I know to slow down. It just gave me a time to 
really focus on, one on myself, and then my relationship with 
my husband, and then the relationship with my daughter and 
my family. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Sherrie Arnold, Information Technology Professional, 
Alexandria, Virginia)) 
Despite the circumstances of COVID-19, the one thing that I 
really appreciate is the time that I've been able to spend with 
my husband and with our daughter. We would not have had 
this type of in-depth time together under pre-COVID 
circumstances.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Madeline Arnold, Student, Alexandria, Virginia)) 
I know I've gotten to know like my mom and dad a lot more. 
So, I feel like family time has been very important throughout 
this past year. So, I feel like coming out of this, we’ll all have 
this better sense of what family means to us.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Henry Johnson, Peer Recovery Specialist, Fairfax, 
Virginia)) 
When everyone is vaccinated and the infectious rates fall to 
near zero, I'm going to host a huge barbecue. And I mean 
going all out, spend a whole paycheck on it. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Sheyahshe Littledave, Author and Publisher, 
Cherokee, North Carolina)) 
Gosh, a vacation with my family and we don't have to worry. 
You know, we don’t have to worry.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Sherrie Arnold, Information Technology Professional, 
Alexandria, Virginia)) 
We've had some really good things come out of this about 
slowing down, about spending more time with each other, 
about finding new activities, new hobbies, new ways to take 
care of ourselves. And I would like us to not lose that.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Henry Johnson, Peer Recovery Specialist, Fairfax, 
Virginia)) 
I hope to spend a lot less time in the house. I want to see all 
the baseball I can. I want to eat a hotdog in a stadium.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Sheyahshe Littledave, Author and Publisher, 
Cherokee, North Carolina)) 
My future hope would be two things. One is that everybody 
learns a little bit about letting go of things you can't control.  
And the other thing would be for people to take this as a 
learning lesson when it comes to mental health, to not be as 
judgmental. Well, you know, everybody's struggling with 
something, you know, and if we can just be a little kinder and 
have a little more compassion, mental health wouldn't be as 
much of a stigma as it is.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Henry Johnson, Peer Recovery Specialist, Fairfax, 
Virginia)) 
I’d say that my life has improved because of COVID-19, only 
in the fact that it's made me aware of some of my 
vulnerabilities. I've gone from someone who doesn't believe 
in anything to someone who passionately sees every day the 
existence of virtue in our society by little things like, you 
know, neighbors wearing masks or, you know, communities 
respecting each other's distances. You know, like those are 
small sacrifices, but it shows an awareness of both the value 
of themselves and the world in which they live. You know, 
when you see that, that has been very comforting to me.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Catherine Lieberman, Director, Bell's School, 
Asheville, North Carolina)) 
Hopefully, this will make us better people and a better nation 
moving forward. That it will make us kinder in the long run 
because we've all, as a world, have experienced this great 
trauma. And how can we be better, a better society moving 
forward, and make connections that are positive and not try 
to hurt each other.   
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Henry Johnson, Peer Recovery Specialist, Fairfax, 
Virginia)) 
My hope is that just enough of us learn lessons, so that in 
the future, we can do it better. I hope that the government is 
learning how to handle a pandemic better, just in case 
another one comes relatively soon. We had 100 years 
between the last two major pandemics. If we learn the 
lessons and we improve it, so that next time, it's not as bad.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Dave Arnold, Chef, Alexandria, Virginia)) 
What I hope will come out of this is, people will realize that 
we're all in this together. People can have different opinions 
about a lot of things. But we just, I think, have lost sight of 
how much we do have in common. And I hope that that will 
have some impact on us going forward as a nation and as a 
world population.  
((NATS/MUSIC))