On this past Saturday, April 19, 2020, from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM (3 hours), the Phoenix Branch gathered once again at a different member’s backyard (than the last 3 sessions) to pick oranges to help fundraise for supplies for the COVID-19 crisis. These oranges were special in that they were Arizona sweet oranges. During the event, the volunteers picked over 600 pounds of oranges and packaged them into 10, 15, and 20 pound bags to be sold. The money generated from this event will be used to purchase supplies that will be donated to local hospitals and retirement centers in order to help them respond to the spread and growing number of cases of COVID-19. In total from all four orange picking sessions, $1,000 dollars were raised to buy face masks. All of the volunteers wore both gloves and face masks throughout the entirety of the event to protect against the possible spread of any pathogens; in addition, the number of volunteers was limited to under 10 in accordance with the president’s recommendation to not gather in groups of 10 or more.
The volunteers that participated in this event were Katherine Wei, Michelle Yu, Michael Chen, Richard Cheng, Amy Xie, Carrie Chen, and Charles Zhang.
