Like many Americans who felt burned out and isolated after the government shuttered thousands of small businesses and forced many inside for weeks and months on end during the COVID-19 pandemic, Olivia D'Amico saw the need to forge a new kind of community in her hometown of Bradenton, Florida.

The lockdowns that halted concerts and many other communal activities also closed the church where D'Amico worked, depriving her and so many others of their spiritual sanctuary—not just a house of worship, but also a place for members to gather and bond.