Western Pa. colleges donate protective gear for first responders, health care workers

A number of colleges and universities across Western Pennsylvania are donating supplies to first responders, hospital workers and others on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic.

Saint Vincent

The switch to online learning means lab procedures are suspended for the rest of the spring semester at the Unity college’s Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion, so a team of Saint Vincent staff and faculty this week rounded up hundreds of pieces of protective gear. Much of it was donated to the county Department of Public Safety to help protect first responders from exposure to the virus as they assist at emergency scenes.

Supplies also were sent to the Conemaugh Health System’s Home Health division, which serves clients in Cambria, Westmoreland and eight other counties.

Donated items included more than 500 boxes of gloves, 500 face masks, 200 shoe covers, 100 fluid-proof gowns and surgical caps, 30 sets of surgical gloves, 25 sets of disposable scrubs, 20 sets of safety goggles and 10 disposable lab coats.

Seton Hill, WCCC

The Greensburg university and Westmoreland County Community College each have donated protective equipment to Adelphoi, a Latrobe-based organization that provides treatment and education to at-risk children. Seton Hill donated gloves, aprons, shoe covers and masks for use at Adelphoi’s residential facilities. WCCC supplied gloves, masks, goggles, hand sanitizer and antibacterial soap.

Protective equipment, normally used by students in Seton Hill’s School of Natural and Health Sciences, was donated to staff at adjacent Caritas Christi — the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, the school’s founding order. The equipment will be used to care for the vulnerable residents there, including Sisters of Charity and people living at the Elizabeth Seton Memory Care Center.

Duquesne

The Uptown Pittsburgh university is donating personal protective equipment from its research labs and classrooms to health care workers.

Officials said Duquesne’s schools of pharmacy, nursing, health sciences and natural and environmental sciences partnered to provide supplies to hospitals, clinics, group homes and home-care workers in the region. The university is sending more than 100 cases of gloves (about 150,000 pairs), 80 N95 face masks, 25 boxes with disposable gowns, shoe covers and hair/beard covers, and several boxes of goggles, sanitizing wipes, hand sanitizers, and biohazard bags to the Southwest Healthcare Coalition, a division of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Allegheny County Health Department.

Carnegie Mellon

CMU researchers, whose labs were temporarily closed, donated unused personal protective equipment to Allegheny County agencies.

The Oakland university’s departments of biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and chemical engineering provided 621 items, including 244 boxes of gloves and 160 N95 masks, to Allegheny County Emergency Services. Additional supplies were donated to the Allegheny County Health Department.

CCAC

The Community College of Allegheny County donated dozens of boxes of protective equipment to help medical professionals. Supplies were taken to Allegheny County Emergency Services for distribution.

Gloves and isolation gowns were collected from the college’s Nursing and Allied Health departments on all four campuses. The Automotive and HVAC programs, based at West Hills Center, also donated around 1,000 pairs of gloves and hundreds of masks. As classes are not in face-to-face classes, the supplies are not needed on campus.

In a separate effort, the college’s Public Safety Institute also donated 1,400 pairs of sterile exam gloves and more than a case of protective suits to Allegheny County Emergency Medical Services. The equipment was being used to train students in EMS and hazmat operations.

BC3

Butler County Community College donated protective equipment from its Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health, and from biology and chemistry labs, to augment supplies used by health care providers at Concordia Lutheran Ministries and the Butler Health System.

Donations includes 70 boxes of gloves and 200 disposable isolation gowns, as well as head coverings, surgical masks and dressings.

IUP

Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s College of Health and Human Services and Institute for Rural Health and Safety donated gloves and other supplies that are used in training to assist front line responders, nurses and physicians at Indiana Regional Medical Center.