Utah businesses are coming together to donate some much-needed COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Utah Attorney General's Office, to distribute all across the state.
The AG's Office is able to get those supplies to far-reaching areas of Utah, where the supplies are low in stock.
On Thursday afternoon, boxes sat stacked up in the trunk of Dan Young's car. The PC Laptops CEO opened his trunk, and explained what he had inside the boxes.
"We've got 3,000 gloves-- nitrile-- and we have 1,000 masks," he explained, as he started to grab the boxes. "And we have much more coming in."
He and Scott Carver, with the Utah Attorney General's Office, picked up the shipments and walked inside the AG's Murray office.
They sat the boxes down on a table, next to nearly two dozen boxes that arrived earlier in the day from Sherwin Williams, filled with 3M N95 masks.
Hand sanitizer from Ogden's Own Distillery sat piled up in another box on a nearby table.
"Everybody that we contacted, they are just thrilled to death," Carver said, of the donation recipients. "They can't believe it that they're getting some."
Thrilled to get some of these hard to come by items during COVID-19, because the AG's Office is distributing them in hard to get to places.
Attorney General Sean Reyes, who stopped by the donation station Thursday afternoon, explained that they're making sure hospitals have what they need-- but there's another population desperate for gloves, hand sanitizer and masks.
"We're really trying to get these into the hands of communities, particularly rural communities out there are in dire need," he said. He described how they've heard from sheriffs, chiefs and fire battalion chiefs.
Reyes indicated his office is driving the supplies out to each agency that asks for it.
"We received them today," said Lieutenant Jace Peterson with Nephi City Police. "We've already passed them out. We've issued them to every one of our patrol officers."
Lt. Peterson explained that their 11-person department didn't have enough N95 masks before and not every officer had PPE gear.
"With a small department like Nephi, we are unable to purchase everything that we need in these times of crisis, where we are learning as we go basically" he said. "So the fact that these companies and these individuals were willing to donate anything that they could, just means a lot to us."
Now, they'll have the right protective gear to wear to calls, and just in time. Lt. Peterson said that as of Thursday, they are to wear their full protective equipment on traffic stops, citizen contacts and medical calls.
Back at the Murray office, Carver seemed grateful for Young's glove donation.
"This is the first batch of gloves that we've received," he said, to Young. "We have probably another 15,000 more," Young replied.
Young said PC Laptops donated masks to other states and sent some with Utah nurses who relocated to New York to help out during the pandemic.
He started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for additional supplies.
Young described how they also wanted to help first responders because they are exposed to hundreds of people per week.
"We want to make sure that they're safe and virus free, so that there's no spread of infection," he said.
Young described how they also wanted to help first responders because they are exposed to hundreds of people per week.
So, they're spreading charity and protection-- to all corners of Utah.
