As California’s stay-at-home order is lifted, the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce teamed up with the Los Angeles Small Business Development Center, L.A. County’s Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services and PPE Unite to launch a personal protection equipment distribution event for the SCV’s small businesses.
PPE-Up, a one-day drive-thru distribution event scheduled Feb. 6, is the latest effort by PPE Unite and partners to support small business owners and their employees by providing them with a free, 30-day supply of personal protective gear for all eligible small businesses in L.A. County.
“As businesses face adversity with the health crisis and future lockdowns, our goal is to ensure that businesses don’t have further burdens to their bottom line with financial costs of PPE on the rise,” Jay Tsao, co-founder of PPE Unite, said in a prepared statement. “We see what disruption one single COVID-compromised employee can do to an entire company and their operations. We want to make sure businesses are not only compliant, but able to keep their employees safe and can mitigate some of those risks from unpredictable medical issues and flare ups.”
The Santa Clarita event is set to take place outdoors and adhere to L.A. County health and safety guidelines that include no-contact PPE car loading and social distancing.
This collaborative effort focuses on engaging hyper-local communities and their small businesses in need.
“Our local business community is striving to stay afloat while prioritizing health and safety,” county Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose 5th District includes the SCV, said in the statement. “I encourage Santa Clarita Valley businesses to access this free equipment from PPE Unite to continue to keep workers and customers protected. I’m thankful to the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber for continuing to support, equip and uplift businesses with the tools they need.”
Private partners include Princess Cruises and Westfield Valencia Town Center, who donated their site and volunteers for the event.
“With the regional stay-at-home order lifted and L.A. County following state guidelines, this event comes at a perfect time as our business community is once again allowed to reopen and need to ensure business owners, their employees and customers are all safe during this time,” added Ivan Volschenk, managing partner at Evolve Business Strategies, which manages the chamber.
The mobile PPE-Up event is the latest effort to distribute more than 12 million units of PPE items to small businesses in L.A. County during the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, with more than 30,000 small businesses having signed up to receive free PPE materials to date.
PPE-Up is scheduled to take place 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Westfield Valencia Town Center. All supplies are offered on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.
To sign up your business for free PPE, visit the PPE Unite website at ppeunite.org.
