As communities across the country continue to grapple with the growing pandemic, many Thor Industries brands are supporting healthcare workers with critical supplies and mobile units to fight the spread of the virus.
“As the world faces the massive challenge of the pandemic, we view it as our obligation to stand in support of the fight against its spread and to be part of the solution,” Thor Industries President and CEO Bob Martin said. “On a daily basis, our management team meets to assess the situation and to identify and take necessary actions to help our communities where our team members and their families live. We are committed to emerge from this crisis and, along with the rest of the world, we will seize opportunities to contribute what we can to help life get back to normal.”
Thor is focused on helping the medical community overcome global shortages of essential materials to fight the spread of COVID-19, he said. Thor companies in the United States and Europe have offered assistance from donating face masks and protective gear, to gifting travel trailers for use by those affected by the pandemic, including health care workers.
“Furthermore, we stand united with our dealer partners who have taken action in their communities to provide RVs to various agencies, including but not limited to first responders and healthcare facilities,” Martin said. “I’m very proud to be associated with an industry which responds in moments of crisis and our subsidiaries who took action on their own to assist local agencies.”
A partial listing of the efforts by Thor companies to date includes:
Airstream
The iconic brand has donated two NEST travel trailers for the Wilson Health medical team to use to conduct testing at the Shelby County Fairgrounds in Shelby, Ohio. The site will be set up as a drive-through, and a Wilson Health medical team will collect specimens from patients who have a physician order for a COVID-19 test to be performed.
Heartland Recreational Vehicles
The towable RV manufacturer has donated critical supplies to Beacon Health System in Elkhart, Indiana, delivering two pallets of supplies to Beacon’s incident command center, including 400 face masks and 700 chemical protective suits.
Jayco
The RV manufacturer has donated several units as well as safety glasses, face masks and vinyl gloves to local healthcare facilities and area first responders in South Bend and Goshen, Indiana. The company gave two Seismic 4125 toy haulers to serve as additional space for pediatric immunizations outside of the clinic with the goal of keeping kids safe during the pandemic. Jayco also donated one unit to the Middlebury Fire Department to use as a quarantine space should one of the firefighters become infected.
Keystone RV
A leader in RV innovation, Keystone has donated supplies throughout its local Indiana community, including masks and protective suits for the Wakarusa Ambulance Department, masks for healthcare professionals in a network of nursing homes in Northern Indiana, and sets of eye protection for Goshen Hospital. The company is also supporting their Pendleton, Oregon, community by providing 400 masks to St. Anthony Hospital.
K-Z Recreational Vehicles
The RV manufacturer has raised funds to provide medical supplies to area hospitals. The company is also partnering with Goshen General Hospital and other area businesses to produce reusable protective masks.
Thor Motor Coach
The motorhome manufacturer has provided chemical protective suits and face masks to healthcare workers in Elkhart and Goshen, Indiana. The company has also donated fabric for its furloughed employees to make face masks, hoping to eliminate a future shortage in the area.
“This is an unprecedented time in our history, and one that requires us to come together and help where we can,” Martin said. “We are proud of our companies as they have and will continue to step up to support our communities and the health care professionals doing the hard work of fighting this disease. Our hope is that we can look back at this time in history and say that we all cared for one another and because of that, we came out stronger than ever.”
