A group of organizations and businesses in the community are making sure Allen County schools are well-supplied with a COVID-19 necessity. Over 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer were distributed to local schools on Friday.
The 5th Annual Day of Caring at the United Way of Greater Lima has kicked off. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to the West Ohio Food Bank on Friday to help fill, label, pack and deliver bottles of hand sanitizer to each school in Allen County.
Omar Bravo, the perfume operations supply leader at Proctor and Gamble says, “We saw the need, we knew hand sanitizer wasn’t available. We had the chemicals, area, we had the equipment to be able to make this. A group of people just came together very quickly, gathered all the raw materials needed, and helped manufacture it so we can support our communities and our most needed during this time.”
Proctor & Gamble shifted to producing hand sanitizer back in March and have since been looking for ways to distribute it to those who need it most.
“It means so much to be able to come out and participate in a project that is so timely right now,” says volunteer Ronda Lehman, the president of Mercy Health Lima.
“We knew this day would look different and we were just so blessed when we found out that the opportunity existed to help P&G to help United Way to help the schools and work on this together.”
“Better Together” is the theme of this year’s campaign for the United Way as they partnered with Mercy Health, Procter & Gamble, the National Guard, and the West Ohio Food Bank all to make this possible.
Derek Stemen, the CEO of The United Way of Greater Lima says, “Our campaign slogan this year is “Better Together” and we couldn’t think of a better way to really kind of sum up the great work that we’ve done in the community throughout this pandemic. It’s been our entire community coming together and we’re really proud at the united way to be a small part of that difference.”
The United way is also encouraging others to participate in the day of caring by doing acts of caring and sharing them on social media with #ActsOfCaring2020.
