Town and hospital receive generous protective equipment donations

Masks, suits and goggles donated by two families with connections to Canadian care

The Town of St. Marys and the St. Marys Memorial Hospital are happily sharing three donations of personal protective equipment (PPE), donated last week by two families with connections to Canada.

“We are very grateful for these donations,” Mayor Al Strathdee says. “PPE remains very difficult to get and we don’t have much inventory,” he says of municipal supplies.

Isolation suits were presented to Mayor Al Strathdee by Chen ChunJu on behalf of herself and husband Li ChangSen. The couple retired to Stratford almost five years ago, and soon afterward Ms. Chen became gravely ill and her life was saved by doctors at Stratford General Hospital. The donation is a thank-you to the hospital system, and the couple will continue donating as the pandemic continues.

KN-95 masks and goggles were donated by Li Wenli on behalf of Gong Wei, a businessman who lives in Sichcuan, China. Mr. Gong assisted in the construction of a COVID-19 care hospital in China and he is familiar with frontline challenges. Mr. Gong’s donation was driven by the kindness shown to him by three Canadians who rescued him after an accident during a hiking trip to Canada.

The Canadian Consulate in Guangzhou suggested Mr. Gong help smaller communities. Mr. Gong's donations to Perth County are ongoing and the Canadian Consulate in Guangzhou has been instrumental in delivering his donations to Perth County. Mr. Gong has donated substantial numbers of PPE to Stratford; when he learned of the COVID-related death of grocer Craig MacDonald in St. Marys, he expanded his generosity.

Chen ChunJu and Li Wenli also presented 2,000 surgical masks on behalf of the Alumni of Canadian Universities.

“As we continue to work through our needs and begin to plan to reopen our services, we are grateful for any help in smoothing this process,” Strathdee says. “It’s very generous of these families to think fondly of our communities.”

For more information on the Town’s COVID-19 plan, visit www.townofstmarys.com/covid19.

- 30 -

Contact

Andrea Macko | Events Coordinator
519-284-2340, ext. 249 | amacko@town.stmarys.on.ca