John Tavares Makes Donation to New York City Healthcare Professionals

John Tavares, who is now the captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs and who previously played for ten years with the New York Islanders has made a charitable donation to help New York City Healthcare Professionals in their battle to stay healthy with fighting on the COVID-19 pandemic front lines

In the last several weeks, after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in New York City have been pleading for medical supplies amid horrendous personal stories of suffering, self-isolation and social distancing made it to the press, and that resulted in Tavares wanting to help.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, as an organization has come together to take care of staff that work at the arena. This came from its Team Toronto fund after the NHL suspended the season due to the effects of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

However, after Tavares spent time speaking with his fellow teammates, he came to the conclusion that as a team, they needed to help the nurse, doctors and other frontline workers of Toronto as they push ahead trying to save the lives of those most critically ill with the virus.

Tavares and Teammates Helping Toronto area Front-line Workers

In a recent telephone interview with the Canadian Press, Tavares said; “Everything they’re sacrificing and the risks that they’re taking … it’s very moving, and it’s very heroic. At times it’s hard to find the words. It’s a real challenge, but they’re doing everything they can to help everyone they can fight this virus and get things back to normal.”

Based on that, Tavares and a number of his teammates donated an undisclosed sum to help support two hospitals in Toronto and the local area, with those being Mount Sinai Hospital and Trillium Health Partners. In the interview, Taveras stated; “It was great the way guys came together with this initiative. We’ve seen through many other sports, many other athletes trying to find ways to help any way they can.”

In terms of Trillium Health Partners, Taveras has close ties with the hospital as his Mother, Aryne Tavares, worked at the hospital as a physiotherapist before giving birth to her first child. The donation will result in all 10,000 frontline workers at the hospital receiving a free meal before they begin their shift, a positive move that will have an impact on the three campuses run by Trillium in Mississauga, Ont. Each worker on the campus will be given a gift card from Uber Eats that can be used when needed to help keep them healthy and practising social distancing.

Trillium Health Partners Foundation president and CEO and President of the Trillium Health Partners Foundation president, Caroline Risboro spoke on the donation stating; “We asked our front-line workers, ‘What are some of the most significant needs you have?’ There’s a lot of discussion about personal protective equipment, but they’re also working exceptionally long hours. They’re having trouble getting to the grocery store to feed their families. It’s one more added pressure amidst a whole lot of other pressure.”