Chinese language school donating medical masks

A Chinese language-and-culture school in Lisle is making arrangements to donate several thousand masks to medical workers.

Ray Chinese School has ordered 4,000 nonsurgical masks, 2,500 N-95 masks respirator masks and 384 face shields. It expects to receive them Thursday and to deliver them Friday morning to DuPage Medical Group's headquarters in Glen Ellyn, and to Edward Hospital in Naperville.

Jie Su, chairman of the school's board of directors, said families began organizing the effort last week, when they began hearing from medical workers that their supply of masks was running low.

Su said she and others are also donating from their personal supply. "We don't need them on a daily basis," she said - medical workers do.

The campaign has raised about $25,000 to buy the masks and other gear, she said.

Su said the group also wanted to do something to counter blame and ill-will expressed toward Chinese Americans regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the virus originating in China. She said one student's father, out running on a trail along the DuPage River, was attacked by two women wielding tree branches and yelling at him to go back to China.

"We want to express to the local community that Chinese Americans are doing their best to help out," Su said.

She said medical staff at eight hospitals in the Chicago area have contacted the school, to see if they can receive donations.

Ray Chinese School is a nonprofit organization. It teaches Chinese language, literature, painting, dancing, music, chess and martial arts to more than 1,000 students. It conducts classes at Kennedy Junior High School and summer camps at Benedictine University, both in Lisle.