HCC Donates Personal Protection Equipment from College Programs

HOLYOKE — In response to requests from area hospitals experiencing shortages of supplies, Holyoke Community College (HCC) is preparing to donate surgical masks, isolation gowns, exam gloves, and other personal protection equipment from its health-science programs to help front-line medical professionals as they battle conoravirus.

HCC’s Emergency Response Team has been coordinating with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) on the collection of supplies from the college’s Health Sciences division and its division of Business & Workforce Development.

Late last week, the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts sent out a list of personal protection equipment (PPE) for which Baystate Medical Center and other area hospitals have a desperate need.

“I know we have all been looking for meaningful ways to help out during these stressful times of COVID-19,” said the message, which was sent out on behalf of EDC President and CEO Rick Sullivan. “Our front-line medical professionals and first responderss need our help.”

The items HCC has been collecting include boxes of isolation gowns, exam gloves, masks, goggles, hand sanitizer, and microbial wipes from its nursing, radiological technology, veterinary technician, biology, forensic science, and certified nursing assistant programs.

HCC Police Captain Dale Brown spent Tuesday afternoon conducting an inventory of the PPE supplies at the Campus Police station. He said he expected that a representative from MEMA would be picking up the items on campus sometime today, March 24. MEMA will then in turn coordinate delivery to area hospitals.