A $675,000 donation to Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Research Fund by the Pablo Foundation brings to $1 million the foundation’s total support of local relief efforts.
In the past month, the foundation has also donated $225,000 to Mayo Clinic, HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital and Marshfield Clinic to procure additional personal protective equipment (PPE), testing platforms, test kits and drive-through testing sites.
The latest contribution is intended to accelerate research to further understand the COVID-19 virus, immunity, antibody testing and vaccine development.
“We are experiencing the worst pandemic in over 100 years,” said Zach Halmstad, one of the Pablo Foundation’s founding members. “This is an opportunity to help some of the best people in the world do what they do and save lives.”
The foundation noted in a press release that it has also donated a total of $100,000 in matching gifts to the Quick Response Community Fund of the Eau Claire Community Foundation and United Way, and to Together Chippewa Valley’s community-wide fundraising initiative. Donations to these two organizations are redistributed to more than 40 non-profits serving the Chippewa Valley.
MaiVue Xiong, the Pablo Foundation’s executive director, noted the number of local people and business operations, both profit and non-profit, that are hurting.
She said that she and the foundation board are attempting “to move quickly and efficiently to help out as many people as possible” and thanked the community for the contributions that have come in to be matched.