The Drive to Protect

As U of U hospitals and clinics began limiting the scope of their services in preparation for a COVID-19 surge, Claire Bensard found herself with more time than she normally would have during her clerkship year. She read about medical students who were helping out through news articles and social media.

By early April, Claire and two other U of U medical students in their clerkship years, Wes Smith and Taylor King, organized the first of several drives for personal protective equipment (PPE). The three students called local organizations to solicit donations. They recruited new volunteers through emails and Zoom town halls. Claire even used an advertisement as a virtual background during conversations.

Their initial expectations were modest, but the results were anything but: At the end of their drive, they had collected 89,636 latex and nitrile gloves, 57,656 N95 masks, and 113 HazMat suits.

The success resulted from hard work. 

What inspired you to take this on?

Claire: In Utah, when we were a little further behind in terms of our numbers, I started thinking, “Well, this would be a great opportunity for us to be ahead. Can we collect personal protective equipment now while it’s still safe for people to be out and about?” We’ll still do everything in terms of social distancing, wearing masks, collecting things, and sanitizing items before they get to the hospital, but let’s run a comprehensive drive. We also wanted to support some of the more resource-poor areas of Utah, namely the reservation hospitals down on the Navajo Nation.

How did you drum up support?

Taylor: Probably my closest experience was when I was on my LDS mission, engaging with people who didn’t want to talk to me. Even so, it was still stepping out of my comfort zone. Everyone wanted to help, but it’s still hard to call someone just cold and try to ask them.

Wes: It felt fairly natural for me. I’ve done some door-to-door sales in my past, and this did feel like a lot of cold calls. Eventually, you get some breakthroughs and you pick up some momentum. Once people started to jump on, then it was easier for other people to be involved as well.

What resources did you have?

Claire: Tad Morley’s office [vice president of outreach] was unbelievably supportive. They got us connected with the office of marketing communications and public relations. They were able to bring all the news agencies to our first event, as well as our Real Salt Lake event, and our final event for the Navajo Nation. Having those people involved, it really impressed on me how much work actually goes into charitable drives and fundraising.

Were you surprised by the response?

Claire: I set the bar low—like, ‘If we get one N95, this has been a success because I’m not spending any money to do this.’ Then if I had one volunteer, I was happy. So I was shocked on the first day of our first drive at Trolley Square, where there was huge support from the five volunteers that were there and we would have cars rolling through, about six cars an hour.

Taylor: We had a lot of success getting other students to join. Everyone really wanted to help out. I feel like we answered the question of, ‘What can I do while I’m not able to do anything else?’ Everyone really had this desire to get out and do something. 

Wes: It was really wonderful to see and be a part of, just to see our community and Utah come together and help. People would be coming, giving everything that they had or could get their hands on, and they would cry and wish they could give more because they had been helped or very impacted by health care here in Utah. We had community members who were volunteering their vans go and pick up supplies from those who couldn’t make it to the drive. People went above and beyond, purely out of a desire to help their neighbors.

What was most memorable?

Claire: On our first weekend, a woman donated a fully functioning, powered air purifying respirator unit, which is an incredibly valuable piece of equipment. She said, “I used to use this, but I’m a retired first responder. I’ve kept it in good working condition, and I know that it needs to go somewhere where it can actually be used.”

Taylor: One woman donated something like 500 N94s from Asia. I thought it was incredibly powerful that people from around the world who had the means wanted to help.