SALISBURY, Md.- A drive-thru donation effort is helping make sure our healthcare heroes have the medical supplies they need. Organizers hope people can spare a few extra items they have in their homes.
"Crisis is terrible. None of us like crisis. But something happens in a crisis where the community comes together like never before," Mark Bunting, lead pastor at the Emmanuel Wesleyan church in Salisbury, says.
Emmanuel Wesleyan teamed up with Peninsula Regional Medical Center to host a supplies drive this week at the church's three locations: Salisbury, Fruitland and Crisfield. Organizers say the idea came from a member, who heard about a similar effort underway in Delaware. They're collecting medical supplies, like face masks, gowns and eye protection, as well as household items like hand sanitizer and cleaning products. Organizers say they're making sure the drive-thru collection is done safely for everyone.
"Each volunteer that is here, you'll see them wearing gloves and a face mask," Maggie Moore with Emmanuel Wesleyan says. "You'll see them going out to grab the donations as opposed to having people come into the church. Then, we're collecting names and addresses so we can then send proper thank you's as opposed to hugging someone or high fiving them."
Organizers say some of these supplies are hard to come by.
"Not only is it hard for the average person to find these things, such as face masks or safety goggles or hand sanitizer or cleaning supplies, but it's extremely hard for our healthcare providers to find those things as well and quite frankly, they're the ones who need it the most at this time," Moore adds.
The donations will then be given to PRMC, McCready Health and our local first responders. Organizers say they hope people consider donating.
"They may have plenty right now but nobody knows what the future holds and how far this thing is going to go," Bunting says. "So I think giving them and getting them as much as they possibly can have right now would be the best thing for PRMC and for the community to do." Thursday was the last day to drop off donations at the locations in Fruitland and Crisfield, but people can still stop by the Salisbury location all day Friday to donate. Church members say they hope to continue projects like these amid the pandemic. A full list of the items being collected and the donation site can be found
here. Anyone who also wishes to donate can do so in other ways by visiting PRMC's Healthcare Heroes
website.
User: Peninsula Regional Medical Center To: link
