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Queen鈥檚 University has donated thousands of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) items to help protect frontline healthcare workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week a request for PPE supplies was sent out to faculty members and research labs across the university, and received 60 offers of supplies.

The response included more than 900 N95 masks, 600 surgical masks, and 300 gowns聽as well as approximately 500 face shields, which were not included in the initial callout.

The collected items were delivered to Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) on Friday.

鈥淭he response from the Queen鈥檚 community has been fantastic,鈥� says Steven Smith, Vice-Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Vice President, Health Sciences Research, KHSC and President and CEO, KGH Research Institute. 鈥淥ur local hospitals indicated what PPE they needed most urgently and labs across the university quickly responded to this request. We are fortunate to play a small role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 and protecting our frontline healthcare workers.鈥�

There are several other groups at Queen鈥檚 also working hard to help protect healthcare workers, including PPE Kingston, a team of Queen鈥檚 medical students who recognized an acute need for PPE in local community clinics and hospitals.

Team members started canvassing local businesses such as construction companies and salons as well as veterinary and dental clinics. Also using social media to reach out to the community

鈥淪lowly but surely we started getting a steady stream of donations coming in through our email (PPEKingston@gmail.com),鈥� says Anna Curry, organizer of PPE Kingston. 鈥淲e began organizing pick up of supplies, using proper social distancing measures, by our volunteers as well as coordinating drop off by community members at a centralized聽location. It has been wonderful to see our community come together during this pandemic and donate resources to our frontline workers.鈥�

The group is working with community partners from the Ontario Medical Association to distribute the supplies.

The group recently received a major boost when they accepted a donation of 1,000 N95 masks from a pair of Queen鈥檚 alumni 鈥� entrepreneur and Dragons鈥� Den star Michele Romanow and Anatoliy Melnichuk, Head of Sales at Groupon.

Curry says she reached out to Romanow because of her Queen鈥檚 connections and she responded with Melnichuk鈥檚 contact information. The first shipment of masks arrived on Thursday and were delivered to KHSC on Friday.

You can follow the group鈥檚 activities on their聽.

The聽Gazette聽previously reported on another group of Queen鈥檚 medical students, medical residents, faculty and staff, who are聽using 3D printers to create PPE items as well as collecting donations.

This article is part of the Queen's Gazette series "Confronting COVID-19".