A lifesaving supply chain
Pandemic coalition, town of Taos help keep emergency materials flowing
Since the start of the COVID19 pandemic in March 2020, a group of local civic, business, nonprofit and education leaders has been tirelessly working behind the scenes to help New Mexicans endure.
Known as the Enchanted Circle of Community Organizations Active in Disasters, the EC-COAD and the town of Taos have emerged as state leaders for innovation and action in combating the public health emergency.
“This started last year, closer to winter 2020 – probably right before vaccines started rolling out – we started getting a huge amount of stuff that was becoming available to make people’s responses to COVID-19 easier,” said David Elliot, regional emergency manager for the New Mexico Region One Health Care Coalition, which encompasses Taos and nine other counties.
Shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, gloves and hand sanitizer, were being sent through FEMA Region 6 and FEMA Volunteer and Donations Management to COADs across the region, including Taos.
“The first thing we got was a whole lot of hand sanitizer, and by a whole lot, I mean, 64,000 bottles,” said Elliot. “And then we got a semi truck full of white fabric masks.”
The PPE was sent to schools, businesses and faith-based centers across the state, including Taos County, Rio Arriba County, Santa Fe County, Cibola County, San Juan County and San Miguel County.
When Delta Airlines stopped some of its first class service, they donated alcohol wipes, socks, disposable sheets and in-flight blankets, which went to shelters across New Mexico. When Las Cruces experienced devastating floods earlier in the year, the EC-COAD sent 18,000 bleach wipes to flood victims.
“It turns out, people can think of ways to use stuff, especially in all of our domestic violence scenarios and self-care scenarios and school scenarios – this stuff becomes really valuable,” said Elliot.
Taos and the EC-COAD also make regular distributions of PPE to the local business community, Taos Pueblo and any organization that is hosting an event, like last week’s Big Barn Dance in Kit Carson Park. The town has housed the
PPE in the Taos Youth and Family Center under the watch of Taos Facilities and Special Events Director Mitch Miller and his team, including Valorie Mondragon.
“We belong on the COVID Medical Task Force, and when anybody says, ‘We’re short of x, y or z,’ if we don’t have it, we see if we can go out and secure it,” said Rick Bellis, town of Taos Manager. “And then distribute it to them to keep up the safety standards.”
“When the hospital needed additional testing – and they were overwhelmed – we set up with the state to use the Taos Youth and Family Center to do self-test drivethrus,” said Bellis.
The town started out administering the tests one day a week, but as the decision to return to in-person learning at the schools came into focus, it added a second day.
The town and the COAD also worked together to expand capacity at Holy Cross Medical Center. “We rehabbed the old detox building next to the hospital. We put a couple of hundred thousand [dollars] into that, bringing that up to medical grade so they could have an overflow in there,” said Bellis. “Because we
were running out of beds.”
In the interim, Taos provided tents, generators and outside lights so the hospital could do outside triage and screening instead of adding more traffic to the emergency room.
“The purpose of the COAD is to make sure that we’re efficiently using resources and sharing information,” said Elliot. “So instead of overwhelming one small community food bank with too much stuff, what I learned from talking to [Taos Community Foundation Director] Lisa O’Brien was that, if you get stuff to the Santa Fe food depot, then they percolate all that food up to all the little food banks.”
Elliot said his favorite example of resource deployment happened the week that schools reopened. “We got a semi truck’s worth of kid’s hand soap – cartoon characters and happy smells.”
“We’re telling kids to wash their hands, and we’re trying to prevent COVID-19, and kids are going back to school,” said Elliot. “So when no one wanted this kid’s hand soap, I was like – school started – this is great.”