Youth Golf Alliance makes impacts locally and beyond through the donation of homemade face shields

After the initial success of donating homemade face shields to local hospital Palomar Health, Youth Golf Alliance (YGA) continues to donate thousands of face shields to several high-risk facilities: YGA member Johnavon Kim delivered 100 face shields to LightBridge Hospice & Palliative Care; Spencer Zhang delivered 200 face shields to HarborView Senior Assisted Living and The Springs at Pacific Regent; Sofina Firouzi delivered 200 face shields to the County of San Diego/Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation.

On Friday, May 22, YGA donated 300 face shields to the City of San Diego Fire Department in Kearny Villa station and were greeted by three firefighters who expressed their appreciation of support. Firefighters are the first lines of defense along with health care professionals to retrieve sick patients from their homes and senior centers, and as such they are potentially subject to the exposure of coronavirus and need protective gear.

YGA donated 300 face shields to the City of San Diego. (L-R): Kenny Zhang, Spencer Zhang, Philip Christy (on behalf of San Diego Fire Department), Laura Zhou, Johnavon Kim, Sofina Firouzi.

(Courtesy)

Youth Golf Alliance (YGA), a student-run organization that consists of high school varsity golfers from several local high schools, including Canyon Crest Academy and Torrey Pines High School, aims to promote the sport of golf while serving disadvantaged communities. Through an online tutoring fundraiser, YGA uses the donations to procure materials needed for cost-efficient, high-throughput, DIY face shields. Recently, after a rigorous and competitive application process, Spencer Zhang, the president and founder of YGA, won a $1,000 grant from Alliance of Chinese Americans San Diego. This added fuel will definitely propel YGA to be in a better position to procure additional materials and enable the members to ramp up the production of these necessary face shields in local communities and beyond.

On Saturday, May 23, five representatives of the YGA members went to Carlsbad Jet Center to deliver 600 handmade face shields to California Disaster Airlift Response Team (CalDART). CalDART is a non-profit organization formed by private jet pilots and entrepreneurs who love flying. They have a much wider reach of what YGA can deliver through their access and ownership of private jets.

A pair of pilots from CalDART flew their Cessna Turboprop from Bay area to Carlsbad Jet Center, shared their personal experiences with aiding disaster relief (earthquake, flood, mudslides, etc) with the members of YGA, and even gave them a tour of cockpit of their Cessna, hangars, and facilities. They then airlifted the 600 face shields to San Jose Reid-Hillview Airport on the same day. Face shields were then picked up by The Community Health Partnership, a consortium of 10 non-profit medical organizations in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties that together operate 42 clinics.

CalDART has the capacity to go even further and deeper inland- as north to Walla Walla, Wash., as south to Tijuana, as east to native American tribes (Navajo nations) and rural areas in Texas. It was an eye-opening experience for fellow YGA members to comprehend that what they have done in their capacity can make a meaningful impact to others in need, even in faraway places. As stated by Spencer, “We are even more motivated to make PPE for those in need. We call for community support to either contribute through your donations, or better yet, join us in our fight against the COVID-19 by being a part of our team. Here is our website: youthgolfalliance.weebly.com. You can also reach us by email at youthgolfalliance@gmail.com.”