Community Corner
CU Boulder Donates Protective Equipment To Health Care Workers
The university donated more than 130,000 pieces of protective equipment to health care workers and first responders.
BOULDER COUNTY, CO — The University of Colorado Boulder has donated more than 130,000 pieces of personal protective equipment to health care workers and first responders in Boulder County. The equipment, which was gathered from the university's departments, labs and units, was loaded into pickup trucks Friday afternoon and sent to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management.
The items include gloves, N-95 masks, face shields, shoe covers and other equipment. The county's emergency management office will distribute the equipment to health care providers, long-term care facilities and first responders throughout the county.
“These donations far exceeded my expectations,” Garry DeJong, the school's director of campus emergency management, said in a statement. “Coupled with our researchers and engineers working on ways to keep people safe and finding ways to fight COVID-19, CU Boulder is making a sizable impact in this historic moment.”
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The personal protective equipment is used regularly on campus for research, chemical labs and various other practices.
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“We were hoping for five to ten departments to donate a few items,” DeJong said. “Once the word got out about the donations drive, the CU partners just continually kept stepping up.”
Around 98 percent of the university's protective equipment was donated, and the rest is being reserved for campus health care providers and essential workers.
Mike Chard, director of the Boulder Office of Emergency Management, said he was very grateful.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created tremendous pressure on our health care systems, long-term care facilities and first responders,” Chard said in a statement. “Being able to keep the supply of medical and PPE at an essential service level preserves health care and government services and protects staff.”
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