Dec. 18, 2020

Northwest alumni assisting in fight against COVID-19

和记棋牌娱乐的几名校友正在帮助他们的社区抗击COVID-19, both as volunteers and in their professional roles. 下面的故事突出了三位和记棋牌娱乐校友的例子.

Jeff Cook ’80

Cook and his fiancé, Jana Frye, raised about $9,通过制作传播熊猫自豪感的面具，为两家西北基金捐赠了1000万美元.

今年4月，弗莱为库克设计了一个带有西北公司标志的绿色面具，之后这个项目就开始了. 他把自己戴着面具的照片发到了熊猫粉丝的Facebook群里，很快就收到了想要自己戴面具的人的请求.

So Cook, who resides in Gladstone, Missouri, 弗莱计划接受50份订单，同时与西北基金会合作，为慈善机构募集捐款 Pay It Forward Fund该机构为西北地区经济困难的学生提供帮助. 这对夫妇建议捐赠10美元买一个绿色的西北徽标面具，捐赠15美元买一个红色的西北徽标面具，以纪念已故的熊猫足球教练, Scott Bostwick, in addition to $8 to cover shipping costs.

随着兴趣的增长，库克和弗莱同意生产更多的口罩. 29, crafted a total of 837 masks. Cook estimates he and Frye invested more than $4,其中包括几套绿色的特大号床单，他们用来制作布料,400 hours in assembling the masks.

They donated all their proceeds, providing about $4,000 to the Pay It Forward Fund and another $5,为了更新熊猫橄榄球队的更衣室.

In July, Cook’s employer, Schenck Process Group, where he is an information technology project manager, awarded him its monthly Global Social Hero award. 这家总部位于德国的公司还奖励库克向他选择的一个组织捐赠500欧元. 他选择将这些资金兑换成美元，并将其用于更衣室项目. 

“从和记棋牌娱乐4月20日开始到和记棋牌娱乐真正开始制作口罩, 和记棋牌娱乐已经有了那么多的订单，和记棋牌娱乐总是很难跟上,” Cook said. “The passion was there to help students. This is unprecedented times, and it was a labor of love.”

Holly Murphy-Barstow ’81

Murphy-Barstow and her husband Bruce Barstow ’78, ’82, of Omaha, Nebraska, 从为医护人员提供口罩的想法开始，带头开展了一项工作，后来发展到更多的事情.

在去年春天读到医疗保健行业N95口罩供应减少的消息后, Murphy-Barstow, who is the owner and president of Barstow and Company, a wealth management company, 让家人和邻居按照说明书组装工具包, fabric, 弹性和其他材料来组装足够大的口罩，以适应N95口罩. The oversized masks, she thought, 会允许医疗工作者保存和佩戴n95更长时间吗. 

In a short time, 墨菲-巴斯托和一位邻居会见了内布拉斯加州卫理公会卫生系统的工作人员，分享了他们的原型, and the hospital submitted a request for 10,000 masks the next day. The day after that, 墨菲-巴斯托在Facebook上创建了一个小组，他们把这个项目叫做“内布拉斯加医用口罩”，这个小组很快得到了关注，最终吸引了大约2人,为工程作出贡献的000名义工，包括渠务人员、供应商及送货人员.  

Murphy-Barstow, functioning as the chief executive officer for the project, worked the phone to solicit donations. She also fielded calls from people in 12 other states, including hard-hit New York and even a couple other countries, who wanted to duplicate the volunteer effort.

“I am not a stranger to organization, nor to volunteering, 但对我来说，和记棋牌娱乐应该做的就是找到这些志愿者,” she said. “如果你能给每个人提供相同的东西和一套简单的指导，你就会取得最大的成功.”

When they concluded the project in August, the group had made about 160,000 masks, 500 face shields and about 3,000 surgical caps. 他们的作品被送到了警察和消防部门, in addition to many hospitals, clinics and nursing homes – and even to Omaha public schools, which received about 45,为整个夏天参加免费午餐计划的孩子们提供了000个口罩.

Kathleen Wilmes ’13

威尔梅斯正在运用她在和记棋牌娱乐担任科罗拉多州国土安全和应急管理部门规划协调员时获得的专业经验.

Wilmes, 谁获得了政治学和综合危机应对的学士学位, 参与科罗拉多州的日常规划以及与大流行有关的长期战略和业务规划. 她在州紧急行动中心与州公共卫生部门合作工作.

威尔梅斯的团队正在监测涉及个人防护装备等物品的供应链问题，并确定应对大流行所需产品供应方面的缺口.

Wilmes说:“全国乃至全球都是供应链问题。. “以个人防护装备为例，但供应链也有连锁影响. 如果你的餐厅关闭了，或者你的学校关闭了，那么你就遇到了食品供应链问题.”

More recently, Wilmes和她的团队已经开始与科罗拉多州公共卫生和环境部协调计划疫苗分发.

“When people think of emergency management, they think of natural disasters, but really it’s all hazards,” she said. “所有类型的事件都需要应急管理发挥作用, 这确实巩固了整体的协调部分以及它的重要性.”