Maya McFadden Photo
The New Haven Links, Inc. made its third donation of 900 face masks to public-housing tenants, helping the housing authority reach its first goal of donating 2000 masks to those most vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of New Haven Executive Director Karen DuBois-Walton and Latoya McCrea, director of community, economic and development (CED), received the boxes of the masks from Gary Desir and Deborah Desir of the Yale School of Medicine.
New Haven Links members Deborah Desir, Tracey Philpot, and President Cathy Graves joined to also provide the residents of the Prescott Bush elderly housing complex on County Street and nine other housing Authority communities with printed directions of how to use and reuse the masks safely.
Gary Desir, Deborah Desir, Cathy Graves, Tracey Philpot, and Karen DuBois-Walton.
The Desirs donated enough to provide each resident with two reusable masks each.
The New Haven Links has been focusing all of its services on aiding underserved communities during the Covid-19 pandemic, Graves said. The goal is to donate at least 5,000 masks.
Latoya McCrea and Cathy Graves.
The housing authority’s developments include more than 2,000 households.
“We’re going to continue as long as we can,” said Graves.
As the mask donation was collected outside of Prescott Bush, a delivery of food pantry items was prepared to be sent off to other developments.
DuBois-Walton said she was so thankful when The New Haven Links reached out with the offer of a donation.
Deborah Desir and Gary Desir.
The Desirs (pictured above) purchased the masks from a personal source.
“The key is that they can be reused, because many of these people are frontline workers,” said Deborah.
Prescott Bush is a senior development (62+) that provides 56 homes for residents with disabilities and elderly disabled residents.
It's great that masks are being provided to people who may be front line essential workers and who are living in crowded settings. The more people who wear masks, the less spreading of the virus within vulnerable populations.