The City of Windsor and its partners in the medical field are sending out a huge thank you to the public.
On Friday, Mayor Drew Dilkens praised the community for coming through with much needed medical supplies when COVID-19 created equipment shortages.
Officials put a call out for PPE donations on March 23 and the response was immediate with more than 150 individuals and organizations donating supplies.
"Clinicians that have the ability to do the job that they needed to, to keep people healthy and says, didn't have the equipment that they needed for a while and that was a very frightening period of time," says Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare's Bill Marra. "This city certainly stepped up in a very significant way."
A total of 45,000 pairs of disposable gloves, 38,000 surgical masks, 3,245 N95 respirator masks, 840 Tyvek suits, 360 pairs of goggles and face shields and 65 mattress covers were collected at the WFCU Centre.
Marra tells AM800 News everyone needs to take a bow.
"We're so proud and thankful of the mayor, the community and city council, just the entire leadership there for stepping up the way that they did," says Marra.
Marra says the entire medical community began to co-ordinate to ensure everyone from a small walk in clinic owner to a community centre was covered.
"What we did as a large organization, is started to ensure that some of the smaller non-profits who are facing the same challenges are also benefiting from those donations and it was really heartwarming," he added.
Dilkens told AM800's The Morning Drive donations came from organizations like dentist and doctors' offices, local manufacturing facilities and even nail salons.
He also thanked the University of Windsor, Caesars Windsor, Habitat for Humanity, Tepperman's and the Windsor Spitfires, whose home at the WFCU Centre was also used as a drop-off centre.
Community members made one-off donations of items such as thermometers, homemade hand sewn masks, ear savers, humidifiers and cleaning products, according to Dilkens.