Westborough Chinese American Association donates masks to local hospitals

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By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter

Westborough Chinese American Association donates masks to local hospitals
(l to r) Jean Tse, Litian He, Michele Kielinen, St. Vincent Hospital Pathology department coordinator, and Yayan Chen, St. Vincent Hospital pathologist

Westborough/Shrewsbury – Recently, Shrewsbury and Westborough Chinese families have come together through the Westborough Chinese American Association (WCAA) and have donated roughly 4,000 surgical masks and dozens of N95 masks to local hospitals. The donations come at a critical time when supplies are running low and are becoming scarce due to COVID-19.

“The exacerbation of COVID-19 has caused … a shortage of medical staffing and medical supplies such as simple masks,” WCAA member Jean Tse explained. “As Chinese, we saw it firsthand through what our own family members and friends were going through in China; we were extremely concerned about this happening to us here.”

The WCAA joined forces with the Chinese community in Shrewsbury. Through social media they brainstormed what they could do to help their neighbors and communities and many volunteers and families came forward.

“There are 200 Chinese families in Westborough. WCAA started to affiliate with Shrewsbury Chinese community starting this kindness act together,” Tse said. “We continue working on more donations as needed.”

The organization raised $5,800 and purchased $2,706 worth of surgical and N95 masks and medical protective suits. St Vincent Hospital received over 1,000 surgical masks, UMass Memorial Hospital received 2,000 surgical and 20 N95 masks and Milford Regional Medical center received 1,120 surgical masks and 10 cases of medical protective suits.

The remaining funds will be combined with the Lexington and Winchester Chinese communities’ funds to be used to purchase additional masks to donate to surrounding hospitals in the near future.

“Hospitals, doctors, nurse and medical staff are in front line and they are short of protection gear,” Tse said. “We feel that we have to step up to support them. Protecting our local hospitals, medical institutions and medical professionals is to protect ourselves and prevent this epidemic from continuing to spread further.”

More than 100 families from Shrewsbury and Westborough participated with Chinese-owned small businesses who donated medical supplies and gathered funds to purchase masks and protection gear.

“We found reliable sources and purchased them from China through our worldwide Chinese network. It took about a few weeks from connecting sources to purchase and to shipping to get the supplies in from China,” Tse remarked.

Tse also shared that they are working to get more medical supplies with Lexington, Sharon and Winchester Chinese communities.

“We are encouraging people to follow the CDC and Governor Baker’s guidelines to continue social distancing,” she noted. “We are all in this together regardless of who we are and where we are from.”

Photos/Courtesy of the Westborough Chinese American Association

 

Westborough Chinese American Association donates masks to local hospitals
Surgical masks ready for delivery

 

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