The King County Library System (KCLS) is renowned for the collections, resources and programs that educate, inform and entertain its patrons.
But during the pandemic, KCLS also looked for extra ways to serve residents. When face masks and social distancing were mandated by the state, KCLS partnered with the King County Executive’s Office (KCEO) and other local organizations to help stop the coronavirus from spreading.
In July, as part of a county-wide effort to ensure wide distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), eight KCLS libraries took receipt of five million masks and 20,000 bottles of hand sanitizer and made them available to representatives from 650 faith-based and community-based organizations.
In all, KCEO and the King County Council are distributing 25 million masks.
The KCLS Materials Handling and Shipping Center in Preston helped organize and distribute its share of boxes of PPE to Auburn, Fall City, Kent, Lake Hills, Lake Forest Park and Skyway Libraries.
Representatives from the community organizations expressed gratitude for the masks and hand sanitizer, saying those they serve needed both.
“Up until COVID, I was cooking meals for the homeless every Sunday,” said R. Szatmari, who picked up PPE for the Gift of Grace Lutheran Church, which reaches out to the homeless and low-income families.
For many, the supplies offered a lifeline–literally.
“This makes a tremendous difference,” said a woman named Hajer, who with her friend Satiha was picking up supplies for the Islamic Community Center of Bothell. The faith-based organization runs preschool, after-school and other educational programs.
“It has been difficult to get PPE even for ourselves, let alone the children and many families,” Hajer said. “We’re a nonprofit organization, so this is a huge help.”
Jacqueline Oh, Director of Early Intervention for the ChildStrive, picked up boxes of PPE to hand out to the 450 families that the nonprofit supports.
“We’re doing whatever we can to alleviate stress, especially socioeconomic stress; we’re seeing a lot of job losses,” Oh said.
“The people we see have really been impacted by COVID-many are just overwhelmed, so we’re trying to focus on making connections to help them,” Oh said. “Making PPE more widely available is one way to do that, while also helping to stop the virus from spreading. It’s really great that the county and library are doing this.”
Auburn Library Operations Manager Jonna C. said staff also “got a lot of thank you’s and expressions of appreciation; people were very happy to hear about us being creative with our library spaces at this time (during COVID).”
She said 67 agencies picked up PPE at Auburn Library, ranging from Issaquah Early Learning Education Association (ECEAP) and immigrant groups to the Salvation Army and Auburn and Enumclaw Senior Centers.
“There was an overall spirit of cooperation and a sense of urgency in getting this PPE out to the people served by these agencies,” Jonna said. “I have even seen people walking the streets in Auburn with the exact face masks we distributed! It was great to see everyone taking the pandemic seriously and working to get these supplies out into our community.”
Anna S., librarian at Lake Forest Park, also helped with the distribution and said, “I really loved being part of this program. People were very appreciative to receive the PPE and were very grateful to KCLS. It was really a great outreach program!”
