Volunteers gift care packages to Newport News hospital essential workers

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — Essential workers at a Newport News hospital were given care packages as a token of gratitude for fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday, volunteers from ASEZ WAO gifted 200 packages to employees at Riverside Regional Medical Center.

“It’s huge for our community to be out here and take the time to say ‘Thank you.’ It’s is a big deal. It’s inspiring,” said Sadie Thurman, the chief nursing officer at Riverside. “You come out here and volunteers are just spending their time to say ‘Thank you’ for taking care of the community.”

ASEZ WAO is an international young adult worker volunteer group with the World Mission Society Church of God.

The visit to Riverside is part of an international Heart to Heart campaign to thank healthcare workers.

ASEZ WAO volunteer Rachael Welch says they’ve already given care packages to healthcare facility workers in 175 countries.

“[It’s] just fun stuff we put in there. We put in hand sanitizer, lotion, warm socks — since the colder season is coming — pens, gum, any little bits they can use throughout the day and think about when they use them [they know] they’re cared for and thinking about everyone thinking about them as well,” Welch said.

Welch says it’s the first time they’ve done the campaign in Hampton Roads.

“At the end of the day, ASEZ WAO, we’re just happy to be here and get the same response in return with the message and goal we had today, which was ‘just deliver,'” she said.

For essential workers, it was a reminder that the community is still supporting them a year and a half into the pandemic.

Thurman says they received a lot of community support during the height of the pandemic.

“[It] kinda died down as the pandemic went on. That’s why it’s an honor today to be out here and have the volunteers and the community supporting us. It’s appreciated. There’s almost no words,” she said.

ASEZ WAO also works to clean up the environment with volunteer groups. For more information, click here.