Lowe’s Donates $17,000 Worth of Masks

When Mack Gebert, the Operations Manager of the Lowe’s in Bonney Lake contacted the College to discuss a donation, he caused a sensation.

Most years, the Clover Park Technical College Foundation accepts just a handful of large in-kind donations. But this call was different: the Bonney Lake Lowe’s wanted to deliver 2,000 KN95 masks to Clover Park students.

Gebert explained that Lowe’s has devoted $100 million worth of masks for stores to distribute to their local communities. Each store gets broad authority to identify and support unmet needs. “Lowe’s has made a commitment to donate to schools, and they gave individual stores a large quantity of masks to distribute as we see fit. A long-time friend of mine is a CPTC student. She told me that it’s been hard to find masks for on-campus learning. It seemed like an obvious choice.”

With N95 masks in short supply around the world, most people have turned to using reusable cloth masks for daily use. Though cloth masks have been demonstrated to reduce the risk of transmission, they are not ideal for people in health care, whose professions literally put them face-to-face with others.

Half of the masks have gone to the dental assistant program. “Keeping people healthy starts with healthy teeth, and we are very excited about this generous donation to our students,” exclaimed Hannah Precour, Dental Assistant Instructor. “In response to industry standards, dental workers have increased PPE. These masks will prepare students for these new precautions.”

The other half of the masks will be distributed to students whose budgets don’t have wiggle room for masks. “My friend at Clover Park is on financial aid. She and I realized that not all students have extra funds for purchasing masks,” Gebert explained.

Thank you, Lowe’s, for your generosity and commitment to keeping our community safe.