PPEs Donated to Glen Cove Area VFW and American Legion Posts

This past Sunday, Oyster Bay Cove 14-year-old Sabrina Guo along with members of LILAC, a charitable organization she founded on 3/23, donated 1500 masks as well as 200 hand sanitizers to VFW and American Legion Posts in the Glen Cove area. The donation was made at the Locust Valley Howard A. Van Wagner American Legion Post 962 and is the second donation event following Guo’s announcement of donating 6,000+ PPE to veterans and families in the North Shore area on Memorial Day, at a commemorative event in Monument Park, Glen Cove. LILAC donated 2,300 PPE in the first event on Memorial Day to VFW Glen Cove, represented by 4 local VFW and American Legion posts. LILAC’s next and final veterans donation destination is the Northport VA Medical Center later this week, where LILAC will donate an additional 2,150 PPE.

Sunday's donation was made at the Locust Valley Howard A. Van Wagner American Legion Post 962. The other posts benefiting from the gift include Glen Cove James Donahue VFW Post 347, Glen Cove Young-Simmons American Legion Post 1765, Glen Cove American Legion Post 76, and Glenwood Landing American Legion Post 366.

LILAC, which stands for Long Island Laboring Against Covid-19, was created by Sabrina for the purpose of raising money to purchase much needed PPEs for health care workers and other at-risk communities. The organization also creates and donates appreciative and compassionate artwork, letters, cards, videos to all those affected by COVID-19 in the community and beyond, both physically and digitally at lilacovid19.org and its YouTube channel https://youtu.be/XDtE1S2JTus. According to Carl Buhr, Vice Commander of the Locust Valley Post, the PPEs donated this past Sunday will be available to veterans at all five posts.

Sabrina initially began raising money on her own. Recognizing that even the government was having trouble purchasing PPEs, when Sabrina’s father, Spencer Guo, first heard of Sabrina’s idea, he did not take it seriously. However, he soon saw her determination and the task of securing PPEs soon became a family project. They launched a GoFundMe page and in the first two weeks collected roughly $10,000. While the $10,000 was a strong beginning, the escalating price of PPE’s demanded more funding to meet the need. Not only did LILAC work to secure more funding through GoFundMe, but Sabrina also put $40,000 from her college fund toward the cause and $950 that she had in savings. “Given how fortunate I am to be living on Long Island and the ultimate sacrifices so many frontline heroes and non-medical essential workers have made, my work is an urgent tribute to all the lives lost. As countless people give up so much, so I choose to do what I can from the place of privilege I occupy. I believe if I am to encourage and call others to selflessly sacrifice, I must be the first to do more, a lot more, myself,” said Sabrina.

In attendance for the ceremony were: LILAC members Bill Yu, Sabrina Guo, Nikhita Kapoor, and Amy Yu; Sabrina’s parents Spencer Guo and Eva Wang; members of the veteran community including Commander of Glen Cove James Donahue VFW Post 347 Ben Farnan; Vice Commander of Locust Valley American Legion Howard A. Van Wagner Post 962 Carl Buhr; member of the Glen Cove Young-Simmons American Legion Post 1765 and Director of City of Glen Cove Veteran Affairs Tony Jimenez; Commander of the Glen Cove American Legion Post 76 Vincent Martinez Sr.; member of the Glenwood Landing American Legion Post 366 David Whitting; member of Glen Cove VFW Post 347 Joe Moores; and, Glen Cove City Councilman Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews.

To date, LILAC purchased 30,000 masks (including 13,000 KN95), 1000 coveralls/gowns and 2704 bottles of hand sanitizer. All items are being donated to hospitals, senior care facilities, first responder teams, and to others at risk. The GoFundMe campaign has raised $61,000 of the organization’s newly set goal of $65,000. To donate, go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/LILACovid19.

Click HERE to view video of LILAC delivering masks and hand sanitizers to veteran organizations.