Employees load a pallet with donated supplies at the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Donation & Materials Center at Clipper Magazine Stadium.
During the initial local increase of COVID-19 in March, while families were just learning to navigate their new circumstances, the leadership team at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health repeatedly heard one message from the community:
What can we do? We want to help.
In response, LG Health opened a drive-thru Donation & Materials Center at Clipper Magazine Stadium, adjacent to one of its early COVID-19 testing sites. The center quickly became an active hub for drop-offs of donated personal protective equipment (PPE) and other supplies to support our patients and staff. Lancaster County’s vibrant maker community also showed up to help.
“As soon as fabric and other mask-making materials were made available for pickup, 180 cars visited the site. As of June 2, more than 12,000 homemade masks have been donated,” said Daniel Atkinson, director, Materials Management at LG Health.
In addition to homemade masks, community members have donated N95 masks, surgical gloves, disposable gowns, face shields, safety goggles, shoe covers, surgeons’ hoods and other PPE, as well as liquid soap refills, alcohol and alcohol prep pads, bleach and disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer and more.
The center closed May 16, due to decreased traffic, and donations are now being accepted at the James Street entrance of Lancaster General Hospital.
As LG Health restored services and procedures in early May, the health system expressed gratitude for our community’s support and for the diligent work of our redeployed employees who staffed the site—transporting, sorting and distributing these valuable supplies throughout the system.