Armando Cortes, the campus’s PPE coordinator, accepted a box of 1,000 masks from a Cal parent in Pinole, California.
As the manager of the Cal Parents Ambassador Program, I’ve known that Berkeley has an AMAZING parent community. I know this because every year Cal parents donate thousands of volunteer hours and tens of millions of dollars to Berkeley to support scholarships and enhance their students’ undergraduate experience. What I learned recently, however, is that when it comes to helping Cal, they will do anything! When the campus closed due to COVID-19, a group of concerned Chinese parents had a generous idea. Separated by 6,000 miles, but connected through a messaging app, parent leaders from Shanghai to Las Vegas, Nevada, to Pinole, California, organized to send protective gear, including gowns and 45,000 masks, to campus and to a local Berkeley hospital. Their compassion makes me so proud to be Chinese and inspires me every day to make Berkeley a better place knowing that they have given us their greatest gift — their children. Cal parents light my way.
