Ripon Forum


Vol. 54, No. 2

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In this edition

The Ripon Society has long believed that America works best when Americans work together.  With a global pandemic paralyzing our country and the world, we decided to publish a Special Edition focused on those Americans who are doing just that.

On the Front Lines of the Fight

Neil Ehmig is a military veteran representing the next generation. Instead of going overseas, he’s fighting a battle blocks away from his home to try to keep his community safe.

A Critical Lifeline in a Time of Need

For the past two decades, Amazon and our workers have built an infrastructure to deliver goods quickly and reliably. We are proud of the role we play to ease the pain of this pandemic, serving as a lifeline for millions of consumers and small businesses.

Thank God for Truckers

Everything we need to fight COVID-19 is moved from Point A to Point B by a truck driver. Without truckers, grocery store shelves and hospital supply rooms would be empty. The result would be chaos. 

Training Displaced Workers is Key to Getting Americans Back to Work & Stimulating the Economy

By giving people a pathway to a job in the tech sector, we are helping fill an urgent need for trained and certified professionals.

A Shelter from the Storm

Shelter at home means one thing when you have a home. But what does it mean when you have no home, especially when you’re a young person on your own, unsure where to sleep, eat, or find refuge from the pandemic?

Partnerships are Key to Defeating COVID-19

We know that in order to re-open the country, testing is key. CVS Health is utilizing its expansive community presence to bring COVID-19 testing closer to home.

Doing Her Part

With wider-spread coronavirus testing needed in America, Jami Clark — a FedEx specialist and C-17 pilot with the Tennessee National Guard — took to the skies to pilot a joint overseas mission, transporting nearly one million test swabs from Italy.

To Beat this Crisis, We Need to Fight Hunger

No American should have to wonder where their next meal will come from, before, during or after a food crisis like this one. At Feeding America, this crisis has challenged our network to continue to provide nutritious meals.

The Food Industry Rewrites its Playbook on Crisis Response

It’s in times of emergency that we realize the true resiliency of our supply chain. Our industry has worked around the clock to replenish and restock shelves, while ensuring the cleanliness of stores and the safety of its associates.

How GM is Mobilizing to Combat a Global Crisis

At General Motors and across the auto industry, generations of employees have been counted on to develop solutions during times of crisis. Today is no different.

Essential Changes Required During Times of Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our country in ways we could have never imagined.  Since day one, The Home Depot has been committed to serving our community as an “essential” retailer.

Response to COVID-19 will Make Us All Stronger

Last month, Honda began building an entirely new product in our 40-year history of building things in America – diaphragm compressors for life-saving ventilators to help victims of COVID-19.

Bringing a Long History of Innovation to the Fight Against COVID-19

At Sanofi, the drive to transform the practice of medicine has taken on increased urgency for everyone in the Sanofi family since the global emergence of COVID-19.

Delivering Hope With Every Package

While the coronavirus continues to impact all facets of our everyday lives, one thing hasn’t changed at all: our customers are counting on us, and we’ll keep delivering for them.

Combating COVID-19 

How can the USO continue to be the Force Behind The Forces® of the five million active duty, Guard, Reserve and family members in the wake of COVID-19 when so much of the tempo of military life has changed?  Our answer, “Change with it.”

PhRMA Member Companies Tackle COVID-19 From All Angles

PhRMA members are working around the clock to research and develop new vaccines and treatments, as well as test existing medicines to help those infected with the virus.

On the Front Lines of the Fight

Neil Ehmig, a Trauma Nurse at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illiinois.
Neil Ehmig, a Trauma Nurse at
Advocate Christ Medical Center
in Oak Lawn, Illiinois.

Descriptions of the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic often use the language of war, with health care warriors on the front lines battling the advance of the virus.

Soldiers make sacrifices for the love of their country, and nurses make sacrifices for the love of their communities. Neil Ehmig understands both sides well.

Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Ehmig has been working in his dream job as a trauma nurse since 2016 at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill. That role put him right in the thick of the fight against COVID-19, as infection rates in the city and suburban southland rose and hospital units were quickly converted to care for victims of the new coronavirus. His unit was transformed in March, right as the virus’ spread started to accelerate.

Ehmig picked up an extra overnight shift to help with the fight, a reflection of similar decisions being made by his teammates across the hospital.

Soldiers make sacrifices for the love of their country, and nurses make sacrifices for the love of their communities. Neil Ehmig understands both sides well.

“I’m so confident in the teams that have been chosen to care for our COVID-19 patients. We are no strangers to trauma and thinking critically,” Ehmig said. 

Giving of himself in service of the greater good is part of his makeup. Growing up, he proudly watched his father, a Marine, head off for duty. Ehmig knew he wanted to follow suit someday. 

Long before the COVID-19 crisis hit and as Ehmig fell in love with nursing, he considered going back to school to advance his education and career. Instead, he followed his father into the military.

Ehmig joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves in a medical capacity as 2nd Lieutenant Flight Nurse in the 445th Aeromedical Evacuation squadron. The 27-year-old is also the school nurse at his alma mater, St. Rita High School in Chicago.

“The running joke is that I always have a lot of jobs,” he said.

For now, though, his focus is clear: Caring for the flood of COVID-19 patients at Advocate Christ Medical Center, sacrificing his time and time with family to take extra shifts and putting his personal safety on the line to help his community.

The hospital feels like a home base to him. When Ehmig was earning his nursing degree, he volunteered in Christ’s emergency department. So he says he has called Christ home base for more than seven years now.

Ehmig is a military veteran representing the next generation. Instead of going overseas, he’s fighting a battle blocks away from his home to try to keep his community safe.

Just recently, he bought a house a few blocks from the hospital with his wife and high school sweetheart. She’s a social worker at Advocate Christ.

At times, it’s pretty stressful to be on the front lines of a global pandemic. But the mission is clear, and it gives him a sense of pride. Throughout U.S. history, military veterans have been honored and praised with statues and holidays for the sacrifices they’ve made for the greater good.

Ehmig is a military veteran representing the next generation. Instead of going overseas, he’s fighting a battle blocks away from his home to try to keep his community safe.

“When I walk into work,” he said, “I feel a sense of pride now more than ever.” 

Kelsey Sopchyk is coordinator of media relations & Mike Riopell is manager of media relations for Advocate Aurora Health.