Baptist Medical Center South is among the Jacksonville hospitals swamped with COVID-19 patients, with some staff pulling double or even triple shifts to treat everyone.
Tuesday night the Rotary Club of Ponte Vedra, along with the OneJax Institute at the University of North Florida, helped organize pizza deliveries for the staff.
Rotary member, organizer and Nocatee resident Bob Wiltfong told WJCT News his club’s effort is consistent with one of Rotary’s core tenets of “service above self.”
Club Community Service Chair Denny Baldwin said it was an easy sales pitch to his fellow club members in Ponte Vedra.
“As soon as we put the word out about this effort we were flooded with donations from our members. We want the medical personnel on the frontlines of this COVID surge to know we see them, we appreciate them and we will do whatever necessary to support them," he said.
Wiltfong said more deliveries are planned, and the Rotary Club of Ponte Vedra is soliciting donations. For now, Wiltfong is accepting donations using his personal accounts, which are @Bob-Wiltfong for Venmo and bobwiltfong37@gmail.com for PayPal.
On Tuesday, Baptist Health reported 534 patients with the virus at its five Jacksonville-area hospitals, including 125 in intensive care, spokeswoman Cindy Hamilton told WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.
