During the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare workers have faced serious supply shortages, and on Sunday Project CURE used the parking lot of one of Chicago’s most iconic sports venues to help address those shortfalls.
The group hosted a supply drive at the United Center on Sunday, hoping to solicit donations of personal protective equipment for first responders and healthcare workers who are in desperate need of medical supplies as they help the public deal with COVID-19.
“This mission today hit very close to home,” Dr. Tricia Moo-Young said. “I think we need to understand that the shortage is literally strangling the effort to strain this epidemic.”
Moo-Young was one of the volunteers at the Sunday event, as she called on the public to donate their extra supplies of PPE so that healthcare professionals can be safer in their efforts to help people afflicted by the disease.
From containers of bleach to boxes of gloves, a line of cars showed up to deliver the badly needed goods.
“Even if we get one box of gloves, that’s one box of gloves the community didn’t have before,” Project CURE Executive Director Beth Rottman said.
Typically Project CURE focuses its efforts on other countries, but the need has never hit closer to home than it has during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“They are large, and people need a lot of supplies of just basic things,” she said. “Bleach, wipes, gloves, masks, gowns, things that until a few weeks ago we never imagined we’d need in our hometown.”
For those residents who missed the drive Sunday, the group is still asking for help. Project CURE is accepting donations at its warehouse in suburban Woodridge, and potential donors can give financial donations on the group’s website.
