Wed 5/13: Ventura County’s Mask & Gown Brigades update and related news.

Beautiful masks made by a local volunteer!

Meet the four health care professionals who stood in silence on May 1!

Watch their video interview here. Many will recognize these awesome local professionals and how lucky Ventura County is to have them.

Listen to the message of care and empathy that brought them in front of hundreds of yelling, angry anti-lockdown protesters. (See previous post on protest here.)
Listen to what they seeing in their health care facilities, for children, adults and the families of patients.
Listen to what they are learning about this disease.

Continue reading “Wed 5/13: Ventura County’s Mask & Gown Brigades update and related news.” →

Mon 5/4: Ventura County’s Mask & Gown Brigades update and related news!

Taking our medical professionals’ lives for granted…

Some of Ventura County’s amazing health care workers took time out last Friday to remind us what’s at stake here. None of the hundreds of protesters raging about “Freedom!” could replace any one of those four doctors on the median in a medical emergency. Across America, over 9,200 health care workers have tested positive for coronavirus and at least 27 have died. Health-care providers are literally risking their lives to save ours. What if they just stopped showing up?

Although the Health Care Foundation for Ventura County has organized an incredible volunteer task force, including the Mask and Gown Brigades, and those who provide meals, temporary shelter and equipment, every one of us has a role in stopping COVID-19 and protecting our medical professionals – simply by following the social distancing and shelter-in-place orders from our county and state public health experts. For the impatient, “Stage 2” of reopening CA businesses starts this coming Friday. Worldwide COVID stats here.

A “thank you” to volunteers, and how you can join in…

Do you want to help make gowns? Go here.
Do you want to make masks for Ventura County’s essential workers? Go here.
Volunteer opportunities and equipment needed in Ventura County: here.

Continue reading “Mon 5/4: Ventura County’s Mask & Gown Brigades update and related news!” →

Wed. 4/15: Gown-Brigade volunteers! It’s time to IRON! Instructions included here!

Quick links:

Join the Mask-making brigade for VC health care workers (now at 4871!): here
Volunteer opportunities, including those for healthcare workers, in Ventura County: here.
Want to be part of the new Gown Brigade? Send your name, address, email and cell phone number to hcfvc@ventura.org

(Information below from Amy Towner, CEO – Health Care Foundation for Ventura County.)

Mask Brigade update.

We had 255 masks donated on Tuesday. Pictured here are some cute ones from Ventura County Probation Department’s Pamela Henderson. She said this was so much fun! Gina and I have done mass passing out of masks to essential workers throughout the county and it’s been fun to see some masks that you have made being sported all around the county. I am asking employees to thank you so I can post on social media, We can not let our guard down and we still need more masks so thank you for continuing to sew especially since we had 33 new cases as of tonight.

Gown Brigade update.

For those new to the Gown Brigade – Welcome! Today, we had our first drop off shipment at Gina’s. With 12,000 trash bags, that’s a lot of ironing. So glad we have an army of community sewing and ironing for our community safety. The message is clear, in Ventura County, we are not ok with sitting around not having basic PPE for healthcare or people. Our community has been extremely resourceful and not waiting around for others to fix the problem.

Attached are the instructions for making the hospital gown from plastic bags.

Continue reading “Wed. 4/15: Gown-Brigade volunteers! It’s time to IRON! Instructions included here!” →

Fri. 4/10: Status of Ventura County’s front line volunteer efforts!

More news about our amazing community here in Ventura County!

Quick links:

Mask-making for VC health care workers (now at 4871!): here
Volunteer opportunities, including those for healthcare workers, in Ventura County: here.
Want to be part of the new Gown Brigade? Go here.

(Information below from Amy Towner, CEO – Health Care Foundation for Ventura County.)

Hello, Brigade!!!

Great day but really busy day. Lots of news to report! In our Zoom Incident Command Meeting, all of you were acknowledged by the hospital leaders and your part in helping to keep our healthcare workers and community safe with your actions of sewing masks and assembling gowns. These seem like small acts perhaps to you, but they are monumental as this virus builds in our community. Thank you for continuing to help and stay plugged in as battle this virtually and united together, protecting our front line people as much as possible while we scour for authentic PPE including N95 1870+, surgical and procedure masks, and isolation gowns.

Mask report:

Continue reading “Fri. 4/10: Status of Ventura County’s front line volunteer efforts!” →

Wed. 4/8: Status of Ventura County’s front line volunteer efforts.

More news about our amazing community here in Ventura County!

Quick links:

Mask-making for VC health care workers (now at 4383!): here
Volunteer opportunities, including those for healthcare workers, in Ventura County: here.
Want to be part of the new Gown Brigade? Go here.

(Information below from Amy Towner, CEO – Health Care Foundation for Ventura County.)

Good evening Brigade!!!

Thanks to the mask sewers and we still need more!: What an amazing day! Our hospital leadership thanks all of you! Dr. Fankhauser actually said the unavailability of PPE was keeping him up at night and with the support of our Brigade and the flattening of the curve he is getting rest. He warns that we can’t let down our guard. We had 533 sewn masks today and look at the donations below!! We need to continue safe sheltering at home and the need for masks is still a must for staff.