Most ninth grade girls worry about schoolwork, friends, and love. But lately, Valerie Xu has focused on facial masks.
The 15-year-old woman from Addison, Texas, said she wanted to do something about the lack of protective equipment for medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic. He also wants to fight stories that stigmatize Asian-Americans during the plague.
Armed with adolescent reason and desire to fit in, Xu collected donations and sent 10,000 protective masks to the Dallas medical center.
Some background: The donation journey began with a conversation that Xu had with a family friend, a Florida emergency room doctor who was forced to wear the same protective mask for several days.
“This really amazed me in America,” Xu told CNN. “We should be considered as the richest country in the world, but doctors and nurses who fight on the front lines cannot get proper protection.”
Because Xu wanted to make a local impact, he launched GoFundMe to buy masks for the UT Southwestern Medical Center, the largest facility near his home.
So far, he has raised more than $ 3,800. Xu researched vendors in China and selected two suppliers, donating $ 1,200 of his own money for the purpose.
He said his campaign so far had collected a total of 11,200 masks – 10,000 surgical masks and 1,200 FFP2, which is equivalent to N95 masks in the US.
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