By Alexa Yang
My family, along with the Chinese American Community, worked organized a fundraising event in order to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers.
The good deed turned out to be much more difficult than expected.
My father made serval attempts that failed. Many vendors wanted upwards to $10,000 in cash. A couple of times, the packages of PPE’s slipped right through our fingers, as they were collected by city officials instead. Through sheer determination and persistence, 15,000 masks were secured from international vendors in New York City.
Naturally, the place that would supply my father with the masks was at the epicenter of the pandemic. So, my father prepared for the pickup. An Uber driver volunteered to make the trip for a fee. The driver returned to our house at 3 a.m. with the much-needed packages.
The boxes were disinfected and donated to Penn Medicine and Mainline Health Care facilities, which included Paoli Hospital. A few boxes were even sent to the East Whiteland Fire Dept.
A worthy effort, for sure, on the behalf of the local Chinese American community.
