As your business advocate, we are always on the lookout for tangible ways we can help our members during these difficult times.
I’m pleased to share good news about our regional public-private effort to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE). In July, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, OneRedmond, and Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce coordinated with King County and 25 other business organizations to distribute over 2.3 million masks and face coverings, as well as 30,000 bottles of hand sanitiser.
Thank you to our many volunteers, including Seattle Metro Chamber staff, staff from our partner chambers, and Chamber board members who made this distribution possible. You can see local coverage of this work on KOMO 4 News and in The Stranger.
Last month’s distribution is just the latest example of our work to get PPE to small businesses. Our association health plan, the Business Health Trust sprang into action as they heard about the immediate impacts on small businesses as the Stay Home, Stay Healthy initiative took effect.
The Chamber and BHT worked to find a local provider of hand sanitiser stations as well as a janitorial company to source the materials. We then distributed kits containing gloves, masks, and sanitiser to 250 essential businesses. This progressed to the delivery of 500 hand sanitiser stations statewide once the process of reopening began. With the support of local employers, we also distributed over 55,000 free and low-cost masks and face coverings to businesses in May, and continue to offer low-cost options through BHT’s PPE store.