ACMC caregivers gather thousands of school items for seven districts
Ashtabula County Medical Center caregivers and community members joined forces July 31 to gather hundreds of boxes filled with thousands of items for Ashtabula County’s seven public school districts as part of a Stuff the Bus project hosted by ACMC’s Nursing Shared Governance Council. Each school district received multiple boxes filled with school supplies. There were individual supplies such as backpacks, notebooks, pencils, and erasers as well as classroom supplies such as copy paper, paper towels, tissues, binders and more.
ACMC Chief Nursing Officer Jacquelyn DiFiore, DNP, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, said the hospital saw donations from hundreds of ACMC caregivers across multiple departments. “ACMC caregivers know that having the right supplies on-hand makes it easier to do your job and improve outcomes. We wanted to ensure students and teachers had the supplies they need so they can focus on learning.”
ACMC Nursing Administration Project Coordinator Tracy Mead, RN, said the full-sized school bus arrived shortly before 6 a.m. and for the next 12 hours caregivers and community members filled the bus to overflowing. Nurses stayed with the bus throughout the day to collect items, especially from community members who drove through the parking lot to drop off items.
“Many of the community members saw the information around the hospital or in local newspapers or heard it on the radio and stopped by to add their contributions,” Mead said.
“It was great to see such support from both inside the hospital and from our local community.”
Local school officials picked up the items the day after the event and were amazed at the amount of supplies each school district received.
Grand Valley Local Schools posted a photo of its donated supplies on Facebook. “HUGE HUGE thank you to the staff at the Ashtabula County Medical Center for holding a Stuff the Bus Drive! Nine big boxes of school supplies came in yesterday and they will be divided between the GV elementary, middle, and high school buildings.”
ACMC President & CEO Michael Habowski said it was an honor for hospital caregivers to help local students and teachers. “I am proud to say that ACMC Caregivers are known throughout our communities for compassionate care and events like this show that our compassion extends beyond the walls of our facilities. We appreciate the support of our communities and we enjoy giving back that support even more.”