MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia Chinese Association has $10,000 to help supply masks, face shields, gloves and more for WVU Medicine personnel on the front lines and those less fortunate.
Wanhong Zheng is the vice president of the organization and says they have a very community minded group.
“In Morgantown we have about 2,000 to 2,500 Chinese residents.”Zheng said,”A lot of families directly and indirectly have been involved in this, even back in China.””we’ve been communicating with people in China for the last few months and we knew personal protective equipment would be in demand.”
Zheng says they purchased 5,000 masks from a Chinese company and they beginning to arrive and be distributed. The Bartlett House has received 500 masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.
More than 130 people contributed, including several West Virginia University faculty members. The fundraising effort was coordinated by the West Virginia Chinese Association, a Morgantown-based nonprofit group that aims to connect and provide support for Chinese professionals and their families in West Virginia, and the affiliated Chinese Association for Science and Technology West Virginia.
“We know the Bartlett House very well, they have been helpng a lot of people,”Zheng said,”If you ask me who needs these masks most it’s people who are homeless and have nowhere to go.”
In addition to collecting donations for the purchase of personal protective equipment, they shared critical information about COVID-19 with the Chinese community, debunked myths and misinformation about the virus, identified online education resources for families with kids at home, offered grocery-shopping assistance to people in need, provided contact information for certified Chinese equipment manufacturers and suppliers to local health care officials, and solicited equipment donations from contacts in China, where manufacturing has rebounded to surpass the need for supplies.
“We are glad we can stand together,”Zheng said,”If we can stand together, we can fight this deadly virus together and that’s very important.”
All monetary donations are made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of the University.