Moving Forward Together: Community Giving in the Midst of the Pandemic
It’s fair to say that COVID-19 has upended all of our lives.
The past three months have brought us a new way of life and new challenges. As each of our lives was disrupted in some way or another – whether it was losing your job, suddenly having to home school your children, or finding ways to working remotely – we all scrambled to find a new normal.
But with every challenge comes opportunities. While we could let difficulties overcome us, we can also strive to find the positive in any situation and rise to the occasion. We worked hard these past few months ensuring no disruption of linen rental and laundry service to our healthcare provider clients. In that time, we also saw an opportunity to help others.
We wanted to continue to bring our Purpose to life by building a great company by positively impacting the lives of our associates, our community, our customers, and their patients.
To ensure no disruption of service to our clients, we took the necessary steps to keep our associates safe first and foremost. Among other things, we ensured we had enough personal protective equipment (PPE) for our staff – including masks for our associates. We quickly realized that the industry faced a mask shortage, which impacted many around us – so we decided to share the love.
Our ImageFIRST Lancaster, Pennsylvania team donated to 1,500 masks to Susquehanna Valley EMS to help first responders.
Our ImageFIRST Field Support office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania donated 2,000 masks to St. Luke’s Hospital in Upper Bucks, and 1,000 masks to the Berwyn Fire Department for first responders.
The KOP office also coordinated with the Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia, whom the associates partnered with in the past. The 1,500 masks donated went to help after school/summer programs for their five locations, which stayed open serving meals to kids and their families, serving over 36,000 meals since late March.
The King of Prussia team also found that WellSpan Health had two facilities in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania affected by COVID, so they sent them 900 masks.
Meanwhile, our ImageFIRST New York-New Jersey team donated to three groups: Eva’s Village, an anti-poverty organization with multiple programs over a four-block campus in downtown Paterson, New Jersey, received 1,000 masks. And both the City of Paterson and City of Clifton were sent 1,000 masks for their first responders.
Not to be outdone, our ImageFIRST Miami team also found many in needs in their community, and donated to Covenant House, a group that provides housing and supportive services to youth facing homelessness, who received 1,000 masks.
They also donated 500 masks to 2-1-1 Broward, a live, 24-hour comprehensive helpline, providing all people with crisis, health and human services support and connecting them to resources in our community. They also gave the Crockett Foundation 1,000 masks. The masks will be distributed to households that are low income and have experienced financial hardship and used for staff and volunteers who make home deliveries as needed.
Supporting our communities and our clients throughout the country is something ImageFIRST associates do under normal circumstances. In fact, it’s part of our Purpose and something that drives us every day. We weren’t about to let an unprecedented pandemic change that!