We Stand Against COVID 19 Together

We stand against COVID 19 together! A message from Guelph Chinese Canadian Cultural Group

As we now live in a world of uncertainties and unpredictable, it is very heartening to see how many of us helping our senior neighbours within our own community.  For example, helping seniors to do and drop off groceries, giving them masks and checking on them to make sure they are safe and well.  It is the least we can do to make sure nobody is fighting COVID 19 alone, and we are doing our best to support each other.

And that’s when we saw our Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield’s Facebook post that the Guelph General Hospital needs N95 masks urgently, immediately, our board of directors called an urgent meeting to discuss how we could support our medical professionals at Guelph General Hospital. Almost spontaneously, every board member agreed that we must do something to help protecting our valuable medical staff at the hospital.

Considering the on-going and urgent needs of medical masks and supplies for doctors, nurses and other front-line staff in combat with COVID 19, the GCCCG has prioritized to focus on fundraising within the Chinese community in Guelph.  With countless efforts of every board member and the larger Chinese community in Guelph, the GCCCG has fundraised a total of  $30, 407 Canadian dollars in 10 days. 

This is such a heartwarming and encouraging moment to witness as We, the Chinese Community in Guelph, as part of this great country Canada, stand against COVID 19 together! It shows how much we appreciate what our medical professionals doing during this difficult time to keep us safe, and we are doing our part to keep them safe too.

Nevertheless, our next priority is to find out where to purchase high-quality medical supplies including N95 masks that are complying of standards.  Our board reached out to medical manufacturers in China and other Chinese communities in the area in the hope of finding reliable medical supplies. With countless back and forth communications with suppliers and community partners, our board finally found a reliable supplier in Ontario and was able to purchase two boxes of N95 masks which is a total of 420 masks. 

It is challenging during this time to find reliable and suitable surgical masks everywhere, our board decided to donate the rest of the remaining fund to Guelph General Hospital along with the 420 masks.  On March 30, 2020, our Chair and other board members of GCCCG dropped off a Cheque of $28712.16 to the staff of the CEO’s office at Guelph General Hospital and the masks at the shipping and receiving area of the hospital. 

With our efforts to support our local hospital, we are confident that the hospital will better utilize our donation to purchase what is needed to keep our medical professionals and other staff at the hospital safe.  We understand this is a very difficult time to all of us, however, we believe, as a caring community, we GCCCG, we are united with rest of the communities in Canada to support each other.  We are all in this together, and we will fight COVID 19 together.