As Iredell County braces for an expected surge in Covid-19 diagnoses, many local residents and businesses are rolling up their sleeves, showing what community is all about.

Across the nation and in Iredell, first responders and healthcare providers face a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including face masks (especially N-95s), protective eyewear (such as safety goggles), plastic face shields and gloves. 

Local residents and businesses have jumped in to help the most courageous – but currently most vulnerable – members of our community. Seamstresses have taken to their sewing machines to make fabric masks. People and businesses are digging through garages, storage rooms and sheds to find unused N-95s masks. Nail salons are donating surgical-style masks. People with 3D printers are making plastic face shields. Breweries are making hand sanitizer. 

Purple Heart Homes and ACME Hi-Performace Laboratories in Statesville recently donated boxes of N95 masks. Nail salons, such as Mooresville’s Nails of America, All About You Nails and Polished Nail Salon, have donated face masks, alcohol and gloves. 

NC Sen. Vickie Sawyer collected donations from Mooresville businesses and recently dropped them off at Iredell County’s public safety center. “These businesses are the ones being hit the hardest, yet they will give their last supplies to help our front-line workers,” Sawyer said. “Please remember their sacrifices when all of this is over.”

Some folks aren’t sure where to donate items, so Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell – in conjunction with the Scoop and Iredell Firewire – has jumped in to help with that. He is offering his Statesville and Mooresville offices – and the Town of Harmony has offered its town hall – as collection sites for PPE donations. “We will put a box outside and take it in every night and then get it wherever it needs to go,” Campbell said.

The Scoop and Iredell Firewire will distribute the donations to the county’s first responders and healthcare providers.

Having a wife that works in the healthcare industry, Campbell is acutely aware of the need to protect the lives and health of the community’s front-line helpers – and the potential dangers of a PPE shortage. In comparing PPE for healthcare providers to police vests that protect in the line of duty, Campbell said, “Obviously we want to do everything we can to come together and get all the supplies we can to help our first responders and hospital workers.

“They are the people we depend on to take care of us – they’re going to look after all of us – and they have to have the tools they need to help them do their job,” he added.