As the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak continues, hospitals and medical workers around the country are facing a shortage of critical supplies. Looking for ways to help, a team of quick-thinking employees from The Aerospace Corporation collected crucial medical equipment to donate responsibly to local hospitals. The cross-organizational team located N95 masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) from Aerospace’s Environmental Health and Safety Department, Engineering and Technology Group (ETG) and the Physical Science Laboratories (PSL).
"It is truly incredible that these employees saw the possibilities here and worked to make it happen," said Chuck Gustafson, Chief Velocity Officer of Aerospace. "They may literally have saved lives by doing so. I am proud to be their colleague."
Working across multiple departments, the team was able to pull together:
- 1,400 nitrile gloves
- 1,480 N95 masks
- 500 three-ply face masks
- 500 clean room caps
"We had an outpouring of concern and interest from employees wanting to know how they could help and find ways for Aerospace to contribute to the fight against COVID-19," said Tim Graves, General Manager of PSL. "We were quick to determine our reserves and our expected needs for our Aerospace staff. Acting with velocity, Aerospace pulled together a serious stash to help our local hospitals."
Lianne McGinley, Associate Director of Aerospace’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, was instrumental in the donation’s distribution efforts and delivered the supplies to Torrance Memorial Medical Center. Laura Schenasi, Executive Vice President of the Torrance Memorial Foundation, was overjoyed to receive them and Torrance Memorial staff shared that Aerospace’s N95 masks are already being used in the ICU.
Aerospace also delivered N95 masks to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles to help with increased demand for personal protective equipment. Both organizations expressed their gratitude for the much-needed supplies.
"I am glad that we were able to donate supplies to healthcare providers that will help them to perform their jobs of helping and caring for those that are affected by COVID-19," said Jason Bayonne of Environmental Health and Safety.
The donations were made with appropriate consideration and consultation as Aerospace is not a medical or first-responder organization and experiences the same manufacturing and supply chain challenges presented by the recent spike in demand for this kind of equipment.
"It is a great opportunity to be able to focus our responsibility of defending our nation inward by helping to protect our fellow countrymen against this public health crisis," Bayonne said. "Be it a public health crisis, natural disaster or other emergency, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to help those that are in need."