UCI medical students kick off supply drive to help hospital's healthcare workers

IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) -- A group of UCI students are leading the way at UCI Health by collecting medical supplies for the hospital.

Physical distancing is kept in mind. People can walk right up to these bins and drop off their donations -- and they are finished.

At that point the students from UCI's School of Medicine take those donations to tents and sort through everything and see what they can give to doctors at UCI Health.

This is the first day of this drive, and organizers say so far, they've seen a good response. We've seen someone with donations stop by about every 20 minutes or so, but that's picking up.

One of the medical students, who helped organize this, tells me they got the idea from other universities in the state doing the same thing.

Some of the people stopping by include physicians and people from labs across campus at UCI.

Anyone who has anything they can donate can stop by here. They're at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute parking lot and will be until Thursday and then on Saturday, from 8 a.m.-12 p.m.

There's also a second location in the Ladera Ranch Albertson's parking lot - same hours, but the last day there is on Wednesday.

Organizers here say those healthcare workers on the front lines are their mentors and they want to do something to help.

"Well, UCI isn't experiencing a shortage of PPG at this time, nations across the Unites States are and we want to prevent that from happening here at UCI," Jaspal Bassi, UCI first year medical student said. "So, we're trying to gather all the materials we can, especially face masks, face shields, any fine respirators, sanitizers...anything that we can to help prevent that shortage from occurring here at UCI."

These medical students are also walking their faculty's dogs and buying their groceries. They understand these doctors are putting in long hours and really are doing what they can to help them out.

Now, if you have some of these items, even if the boxes are open, these students will take them. They'll determine whether or not they can be of use. If you can't catch them here or at the location in south Orange County, you can email: donatemasksucisom@gmail.com.