Nationwide many stores have closed their doors to business due to social distancing guidelines. That hasn’t stopped some shop owners from stepping up and helping out the community in various ways. Some closed nail salons are making masks and others are donating their inventory of face masks to local hospitals.
Huy Nguyen was one of many small business owners in Mobile, Alabama who was forced to close their doors to the public. He closed his nail salon for what may have felt like a permanent closure, but one day he found inspiration on Facebook. There, Huy saw a special request from a Vietnamese pharmacist in the area, asking for donations of protective gear to help with recent shortages.
In response, Huy offered his entire inventory of face masks and gloves to the pharmacist. He wasn’t the only one.
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Many people answered the Facebook request, including other local Vietnamese nail salon owners. An incredible amount of over 134,000 gloves and 23,000 masks were donated. A major benefit of owning a nail salon is that they normally carry masks and gloves because of the service they provide.
Knowing this, Huy went on to contact friends in other cities who ran their own nail salon. Lisa Nguyen and her parents own one in Plano, Texas. They took their entire stock of gloves and masks and donated them. This included 4 boxes of the widely-sought N95 medical masks.
In Brentwood, Tennessee two salon owners converted their building into a miniature factory. There they mass produce protective gear for donation. Trang Nguyen and her business partner are running every sewing machine in their establishment. Employees of the salon volunteer for up to nine hours each day, creating masks and gloves, with everything being donated to local hospitals.
Huy Nguyen and these other small business owners showcase the solidarity that we have as a people while we fight the effects of the coronavirus. As Huy said to NBC Asian America, “We don’t work in the medical field, so we cannot fight the virus directly but we want to share our responsibility and share what we have with the community.”
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We all have our role to play in the pandemic. Some of us are in a position to donate money, protective gear, prayers, or time. We each have our own unique way to show support. And we should.
We’re all in this together.
h/t: Tank's Good News
Featured Image Credit: Tank's Good News/Trang Nguyen
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