Dubbed "Help Our Heroes," the drive was established to provide personal protective equipment, or PPE, for local health care personnel and first responders.
"Health care professionals and first responders around the nation are in dire need of specific medical supplies to treat COVID-19 patients, and Montgomery County, Harris County and The Woodlands Township are not immune," said director Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, the board's public health liaison, in a statement. "There are shortages of PPE in Montgomery County and Harris County, and this makes our efforts more urgent. We want to be ahead of potential shortages that can occur quickly.”
The Help Our Heroes drive will operate from The Woodlands Central Fire Station, located at 9951 Grogans Mill Road. Donations will be accepted Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The campaign will accept protective equipment including surgical and N95 masks, face shields, gloves, reusable eyewear and goggles, hair covers, isolation gowns, PAPR hoods and shoe covers. Disinfectant spray, germicidal wipes and paper towels will also be accepted.
During the board meeting, President and General Manager Don Norrell said any supplies received by the township will be sent on for distribution by the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
“We felt that we could add on to what Montgomery County is doing and actually set up a collection here in The Woodlands," Norrell said. "What [Fire Chief Palmer] Buck has offered is to take those donations at Central Fire Station. ... They would then collect those materials and take those up to Conroe to the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Warehouse, and from there, they’re distributed to the emergency service providers.”
For more information about the Help Our Heroes collections, email Buck at [email protected]. More information about the township's response to the coronavirus can be found here.
