EVERETT — The school district worker’s vehicle was chock-full of supplies, but not for the classroom.
Inside were 64,380 pairs of medical gloves, 1,575 face masks and 90 gowns.
Mukilteo School District dug into its supply closets to help protect people on the front lines fighting the coronavirus.
Snohomish County agencies are having a collection drive this week for personal protective equipment as well as hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
“The span of people in the community needing protection is vast,” said Scott North, Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management spokesman.
Not only first responders and medical workers need products to keep them safe.
“There’s also a need with people who don’t immediately come to mind. People who clean nursing homes,” North said.
School districts are pitching in in a number of ways.
Everett Public Schools is loaning 10 3D printers through an agreement with Ignition Partners to support manufacturing N95 masks, visors and other critical equipment for local health care systems. The Everett district donated masks and 360 pairs of lab goggles to Providence Hospice and Home Care Foundation of Snohomish County.
Sunnyside Elementary School in the Marysville School District gave about 500 face masks to The Everett Clinic in Marysville. The donation was spearheaded by Sunnyside teacher Carrie Narag. The masks were part of the emergency kits in each classroom.
In March, Northshore School District gave 80,500 pairs of gloves and 23,761 masks to EvergreenHealth.
Diane Bradford, Mukilteo district spokeswoman, said the impetus came from Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal’s recent call for schools to donate items not being used.
“These are the supplies the high schools and the tech centers had on hand to support their programs,” Bradford said.
Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center has veterinary, medical and dental assisting programs. High schools had supplies for science and technical classes.
It was stuff just sitting on the shelf, without students around to need it.
“We didn’t have to go through nurses’ station and emergency bags,” Bradford said. “That way they have something on hand when we all come back to school.”
Teachers and principals came in this week to help gather supplies.
On Wednesday, the first day of the three-day collection, Keith Stefanson, the Mukilteo district’s facilities director, used his personal SUV to take the boxes of precious cargo to the county’s Willis Tucker Community Park in Snohomish, one of the two sites.
The other is Haller Park in Arlington. Handmade masks are accepted only in Arlington.
The drive ends Friday at noon.
Donations not accepted: used PPE items, food, drink, perishable items. Money is accepted online only at www.cf-sc.org.
Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.
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