Local nonprofit organizes donation-based testing site for underserved communities in East Valley
The Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine hosted a testing site Friday afternoon for underserved communities of the East Valley. Rep. Raul Ruiz, M.D. helped organized the event, while local college students also volunteered. The site conducted free COVID-19 nucleic acid PCR testing with throat swabs.
A total of 175 tests were made available, while others went to unsheltered homeless.
"We have info that the people who are less fortunate financially, and the people who continue working in close quarters like those who are in the packing houses and in the fields, they keep working even though they don’t feel good because they need the money," Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine Nurse Practitioner, Rosa Lucas said.
Aside from testing, masks were donated as well as bags of food for up to 50 families.
The donations were also meant to help farmworker communities.
"I have visited the farmworkers in the fields and that is an incredibly difficult job, and if anybody had the chance to see that they should do it because you get appreciation from where our food is coming from," Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine founder, Ron Hare said.
The site was also made possible by donor, Mary Ingebrand-Pohlad. Pohlad is a snowbird who comes to the Coachella Valley every winter. She volunteers her time in the East Valley while in the desert.
"These have been the children I’ve been teaching for 15 years and they really touched my heart, and when I see a population that I think is faith-based, family oriented, hard-working, so marginalized, I'm happy to help in whatever way that I can," Pohlad said.
Pohlad said she and several friends also sewed dozens of masks to donate.
"I thought what can I do? I don’t have medical skills. The schools were closed."
Pohlad believes the farmworker community is essential.
"I feel it’s my responsibility as a citizen from what I’m depending on this population for my food-- I mean this population is what drives our economy," Pohlad said.
She said she lost 3 friends to Coronavirus. She currently lives in Minnesota. Despite businesses opening back up, and the unrest happening all across the nation, Pohlad shared her concerns that there could be another surge in Coronavirus cases.
"I’m from a suburb of Minneapolis, so as you know George Floyd was killed in a most brutal way for all the nation to see in my own city not very far from where I live. I feel that the ensuing rioting, looting, protesting has really eclipsed COVID and it shouldn’t because I personally believe we’re in the middle of two pandemics," Pohlad said.
