From Huston-Tillotson University professor Amanda Masino, we have this story of local universities working together to donate masks and gloves to medical workers facing a shortage…

“Huston-Tillotson had a supply of PPE from our (now online) lab classes that we could donate to frontline workers in need. I knew other Austin-area schools would be in a similar position since we are all shifting to online instruction. I spoke to my university President, and we decided to put out the call to the other Austin-area colleges and universities to donate their masks, gloves, and other protective wear to help keep our health care workers safe.

The great news is that all of our Austin colleges and universities – Austin Community College, Concordia, Huston-Tillotson, St. Edward’s, and UT Austin- answered the call! We mobilized at least: 101 cases of gloves (121,000 gloves), 27 boxes of surgical masks (1,350 masks), 2 boxes of N95 respirators (50 respirators), 500 surgical gowns, 7 cases of scrub pants, 8 cases of shoe covers, 4 cases of hair covers, several tyvek suits and several liters of hand sanitizer.

That’s an underestimate because counts were still being underway at Austin Community College, and it doesn’t include some of the research labs at the University of Texas who were responding separately.

If you or your business/organization have any PPE, please donate! You can drop off supplies to the Austin Disaster Relief Network, who is collecting supplies for Austin Public Health. (APH will deploy to frontline workers and hospitals/clinics.) ADRN is also collecting homemade masks. “