Area 31, Ben Davis High School Donate Personal Protective Equipment to IU West

A long-standing partnership continues to reap benefits for MSD Wayne and IU Health West Hospital.

Ben Davis High School and its Area 31 Career Center have donated gloves, gowns, and other personal protective equipment to the hospital. The equipment is helping the health-care facility protect its employees as they treat patients with the coronavirus.

“We took everything off our shelves to make sure it gets to where it’s needed,” said Tim Pratt, assistant principal at Area 31. The equipment had been part of several programs at Area 31, including Pharmacy Tech and Medical Assisting. Equipment also came from science classes at Ben Davis.

MSD Wayne Superintendent Jeff Butts says the pandemic provided an opportunity for the school district to help an important partner. IU West has supported many initiatives in the school district, including helping students pay for health care certification exams.

“As we learn more about COVID-19 and the effect that it’s having, we’re seeing more and more cases being identified, and we know that our hospitals are struggling,” he said. “This was just a great opportunity for us to gather the supplies that we had available that we could share with our local hospitals.”

The supplies were donated to the IU Health West Hospital supply chain.