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International Community Sends Needed Masks Initiative delivers more than 100,000 masks to campus.

In early April, Evans Lam ’83, ’84S (MBA) was actively engaging Rochester’s alumni and parent community in China.

On China’s social networking platform, WeChat, Lam—a University trustee and chair of the George Eastman Circle, the University’s annual giving leadership society—posted, “we are all partners in education.”

The University’s network of parents and alumni in China responded generously and quickly. By mid-April, the University’s China Parent Network Committee arranged an initial donation of 3,000 face masks for distribution to students who were still on campus. The network then called upon the broader Chinese parent community—comprising about 1,800 people—to rally more support for the University.

Collectively, that larger group raised nearly $30,000 for the University’s COVID-19 student emergency fund. Soon after, they launched an additional effort through WeChat that raised $43,000, which they used to purchase 100,000 surgical face masks for the Medical Center’s frontline health care staff and for students who remained on campus.