Pennsylvania College of Technology is aiding the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by donating personal protection equipment to area health care facilities.Various departments have spent the past week collecting supplies – originally intended for on-campus student and staff use – to be distributed within the next few days to the college’s nursing home partners.
Items gathered by the School of Nursing & Health Sciences include 14,000 vinyl gloves of various sizes, 4,000 nitrile gloves, 300 procedure masks, 170 isolation gowns, 125 face masks with fluid shields, 50 isolation masks, 20 personal protection kits (gown, gloves, booties, cap and mask), and 20 bottles of hand sanitizer.Programs from the Schools of Construction & Design Technologies and Industrial, Computing & Engineering Technologies contributed approximately 670 N95 masks and a couple dozen face shields produced by Eric K. Albert, associate professor of automated manufacturing and machining, with the college’s 3D printers.
Departments in the School of Transportation & Natural Resources Technologies supplied about 1,000 masks and a case of transparencies to be repurposed for facial shielding.
The college’s General Services staff collected the materials from various campus locations and sorted the items to facilitate distribution.
“We are proud how members of the college community have stepped up to share vital resources that can help protect the region’s brave health care workers,” said Michael J. Reed, vice president for academic affairs/provost. “The effort is emblematic of the cooperative spirit that will guide us through this crisis.”
Previously, the National Sustainable Structures Center at Penn College donated 102 N95 masks, 31 construction masks, 28 Tyvek suits and 18 isolation gowns to UPMC Susquehanna.
Photos provided