Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as health systems continue to experience patient surges, material and human resource shortages are occurring at a rapid rate. On May 6, 2020, BAPS Charities donated $20,000 to Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital (CDH) – one of the many Chicago area hospitals hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation will be used to provide first responders and frontline healthcare professionals with necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-relief funds to benefit affected healthcare professionals.
Kevin Poorten, President of the West Region at Northwestern Medicine, accepted the donation on behalf of Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital and expressed immense gratitude for the donation. “On behalf of CDH and Northwestern Medicine, we want to thank the charity for selecting CDH for this generous donation. One of the things we’ve done with Northwestern is that we’ve established a COVID-relief fund. These funds will be used to benefit the folks that are in the greatest need and will be targeted for our employees that have been impacted the greatest by this pandemic whether that be through direct financial support or whether that be because of health or illness issues. We’re going to use these funds to directly benefit the employees that have been impacted by the pandemic” said President Poorten.
Appreciative of BAPS Charities’ additional support through meal packages for Central DuPage Hospital, Dr. Kevin Most said, “The impact of that has been felt multifold. We really appreciate it, and we thank you for doing it. You can imagine how busy the staff is; they often don’t have time to run down to the cafeteria. To have the meals delivered to them really means a lot. What’s more important is that someone in the community thought about them and thought about what they were undergoing, what they’re going through right now, and showed a way that they can support what we’re fighting with right now even though they might not be caregivers.”
Regarding the partnership amongst communities like BAPS Charities, Dr. Most further stated, “anytime we can partner with anybody in the community, two things happen: first, it makes us tighter and more in conjunction with the community, so we know that the community understands what we’re doing. We are here to help them; they’re here to help us. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done because BAPS Charities is allowing us to now make a connection. Secondly, your community footprint is very large; we’re fortunate to have Dr. Ajay Patel on the staff, and he’s been awesome to introduce us to you. Also, now we have a lot of people in the community that are thinking of CDH that may not have known as much about it as they did in the past.”
In conjunction with Dr. Most’s remarks about community partnerships like BAPS Charities, President Poorten added, “We are a community hospital, and as we were chatting earlier, we serve as stewards of the assets we’ve been entrusted with. There are people each and every day entrusting their care to this institution, and one of the things we’ve recognized with this pandemic is that we can’t do that alone. This has really brought the community together. Our ability to forge even closer relationships with different organizations like yourself just really makes a difference. It’s very powerful. It beholds us with regards to what our task is. It helps us to keep our focus on being a community hospital where we put the patients first. We’re just very appreciative, and we look forward to deepening that relationship over time.”
Through this contribution and other efforts world-wide, BAPS Charities and its volunteers aim to help communities remain strong and maintain unity as we emerge together from the pandemic.
BAPS Charities is thankful to all its sponsors, volunteers, and the local community professionals for their continuous support amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to this donation, BAPS Charities has organized and implemented several online awareness campaigns for the community on how to stay safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spirit of service, BAPS Charities volunteers throughout North America are continuing to assess situations in their communities to find ways to help.
