SPRINGFIELD, Vt. – The Springfield Rotary Club has utilized a $3,500 Rotary Global Grant to make donations to the Springfield Fire Department and the Vermont Food Bank and Springfield Family Center to assist with Covid-19 response and recovery needs.
The Rotary Club presented the Springfield Fire Department with a check for $2,000 to purchase personal protective equipment for the department’s first responders. This donation will be used to purchase 88 pairs of P100 Particulate Filters and 20 Quarter Turn Adapters that will convert the department’s current self-contained breathing apparatus masks to canister respirators.
According to SFD Chief Russell Thompson, the converted masks will reduce fogging and, being less cumbersome, make it easier to help patients while protecting the first responder.
The Rotary donation is part of a matching Rotary Global Grant secured by the Springfield Rotary Club. The local club committed $1,000, with matches from the Rotary district and international levels, so the local club had $3,500 to disperse. Springfield Rotary Past President Jeff Mobus spearheaded the effort to secure the grant.
The Rotary Club also sent $1,500 of the grant funds to the Vermont Food Bank to provide a credit for the local Springfield Family Center to access food to the community’s less fortunate.
“The Springfield Food Shelf is seeing a much increased demand due to the high number of residents who have become unemployed during this crisis,” Mobus said. “For $1,500, the Food Shelf can purchase food boxes which can feed 20 families. This would stretch out their supplies and truly help 20 families who are really struggling with food insecurity due to Covid-19.”