Olympic Bronze Medalist Ice Dancers Maia and Alex Shibutani have created a GoFundMe page to raise money to provide PPE (personal protective equipment) to health care workers on the front lines. Currently they have raised over $30,000.
Here is a message from Maia regarding their campaign:
“At the beginning of April, we launched a GoFundMe charity page to support GetUsPPE with our own initial donations of $1,000 each. There are many worthy causes out there, but we decided to focus our time and effort on attempting to help our nation’s frontline healthcare workers.
“Four weeks have passed by, but workers across the country are still lacking enough protective equipment that they need to keep themselves, their families, their patients, and all of us safe.
“GetUsPPE is a coalition that was co-founded by a group of prominent emergency medical physicians to combat the escalating crisis of diminishing PPE supply. They’ve done incredible work in quickly unifying a multifaceted PPE donation base, generating a massive database/network, and partnering with grassroots organizations across the U.S. Together, they’re putting critical PPE in the hands of our healthcare workers.
“With this campaign, we are hoping to raise funds and awareness for GetUsPPE. We believe it is possible to build a community that can help support our brave healthcare heroes. This is a grassroots campaign, but so far, over 400 people have donated.
“A generous donor has offered to match donations until we reach our current goal of $35,000.
“Right now, we’re at $32,267. This ongoing matching grant will DOUBLE the impact of your contribution and help ensure that our healthcare workers get the equipment they desperately need.
“If you are able to donate and/or spread the word about this campaign, we would really appreciate it!
“Protect our protectors.”
“Our hats off to the Shibutanis for being amazing athletes, siblings, community leaders, and advocates,” said the Japan America Society of Southern California. “You can visit: http://charity.gofundme.com/GetUsPPE to get details and support their campaign.”