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05/05/2020 03:00 PMWith the help of volunteers from Guilford CARES, the St. George’s Men’s Club, and Guilford Rotary, the town distributed between 7,000 and 8,000 masks to Guilford residents on April 28, according to Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard, who helped oversee the process at the Guilford High School.
About 3,000 bags of either two or five masks were distributed to cars pulling into the school lot.
“People responded, for sure,” Maynard said.
Dennis Culliton, who has headed up volunteer efforts across town, said that as of May 4, there were still some masks remaining that were being handed out to residents on a first-come, first-served basis at the Community Center.
First Selectman Matt Hoey learned last month of the opportunity to acquire medical masks through a North Branford company. With local emergency responders and health care workers comfortably supplied with masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), Hoey decided to get a shipment of 10,000 masks to be hand out to residents in need.
Culliton said that when he arrived at the high school last week to start setting the distribution center, there were already about a dozen cars waiting to pick up masks about an hour before the planned start time.
“It was very steady...there was no backup to the road, but you could see a line of cars going toward the street,” Culliton said.
With these masks still in short supply through online and in-person retailers, Cullton said there would likely continue to be a need for more in town.
Technically, the type of mask the town handed out are meant to be for a single use in a clinical setting, though Culliton said that, based on advice from Health Director Dennis Johnson, they could be re-used in non-clinical circumstances.
But the masks still aren’t meant to last forever, Culliton said.
“[Stores] are going to start to sell them....but I think a lot of people are still waiting for their Amazon,” Culliton said.
Getting the masks out to people also wasn’t a problem, Culliton said, with an “uprising” of volunteers, and a system put together in collaboration with the Police Department and Hoey, among others.
With a few hundred masks left over after the initial distribution, Hoey said that there was no immediate plan to put in another order, though depending on the progression of the pandemic, he said he would certainly consider doing so in the future.
As long as there are masks available, residents who were unable to attend the initial distribution day can call the Community Center at 203-453-8068 to schedule a time to pick one up.