DENTIST PPE - 10/21/20

DENTIST PPE - 10/21/20

Website.

A tupelo dentist office is donating thousands of dollars in personal protective equipment to eight schools in the area.

As wcbi's allie martin reports, the dentists say it's their way of helping teachers and students during a pandemic.

Tupelo smiles family and cosmetic dentistry was only open for emergency services during the government mandated lockdown this spring.

When the office opened back up for regular business, a lot of personal protective equipment had been ordered.

Now, months later, doctors john kenney and richard caron say they will have more than enough ppe and they decided to give the excess to local schools.

"this school year has been like no other in the fact that teachers, students, staff, everyone has had to do extra things so everyone could go to school and that's what we want to encourage, people being in school, but doing it safely, this was a way we could help make that happen."

The dentist office had a facebook contest, asking people to nominate schools in need of ppe.

Eight schools have been selected .

Dr kenney says it's important to help schools carry out their mission.

Milam elementary was one of eight schools getting the most votes in the contest.

All schools are on a tight budget and the donation of ppe is a big help.

"we were very excited and surprised to find out we had won ppe from tupelo smiles, this ppe was not something we initially had budgeted for because no one saw the challenges of re opening school back in the spring, we go through quite a lot of ppe with students so having this extra ppe will benefit our students even more."

Standup close doctors kenney and caron will contact each school and find out their specific needs for ppe, whether it's face shields, masks, gloves or gowns.

Then they will make the deliveries.

In tupelo, allie martin wcbi news.

Here's a list of the winners in the contest.

Stinger