Vivint Solar employee drives a thousand miles to donate N95 masks
Aside from truck drivers and Disneyland vacationers, not many people choose to drive a thousand miles in a day—a trip that takes a whopping 18 hours of road time. But as the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the US, our East Coast RFR Manager, Joshua Yajcaji, wanted to help. Even if that meant doing just that.
Joshua’s older sister, Alexis, works as a nurse in a COVID-19 dedicated hospital over 500 miles away. Like so many health workers on the frontlines of the pandemic, Alexis and her colleagues were running low on protective gear. The sudden shortage of personal protective equipment made finding hospital-grade, N95 masks an almost impossible feat.
But Joshua was determined to find a solution, so he reached out to his team at Vivint Solar for help. We at Vivint Solar had a supply of N95 masks initially purchased to protect Vivint Solar installers while out on the job. We realized that with social distancing practices put into place, our solar installs present a low enough risk of infection that any mask would suffice so hospital-grade N95 masks weren’t necessary. Like so many Americans, we were touched by the heroes working tirelessly to defeat this pandemic so we were happy to donate.
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With 350 masks in hand, Joshua set out to deliver them. A simple drop-off at his local FedEx could have shortened his trip to a total of 15 minutes instead of 18 hours, but he wanted to surprise his sister in person.
At 3 a.m, Joshua, with his lifelong friend (and our very own East Coast Quality Supervisor), Corey Vafiadis, started on their journey to drive the 530 miles to Cone Health’s Green Valley Campus in High Point, North Carolina.
And while Alexis found out early from her mom that her brother would be headed her way, the moment they shared in person was a special one. Joshua arrived outside the hospital, handed the box of masks to his sister, exchanged an air hug, and he and Corey turned around and drove the 530 miles back home. While the trip was tiring, Joshua says he’d do it all over again if it meant helping more health workers.
Thanks for your great example and for reminding us that we’re all in this together! #DoGood