By Libby Allnatt | [email protected]

The South Jordan Rotary Club assembled and donated 200 medical face shields for the Jordan Valley Medical Center. 

Sharon Haupt is the current president of the South Jordan Rotary Club and has been a member of the club for 20 years. She said the idea for the donation came from a rotary club in California, that coordinated the project to help get the equipment to first responders and health care workers. Materials were provided from an FDA-approved supplier associated with the rotary district in Southern California. 

“They found the supplies and gave us the information so that we could order some,” she said. 

Many different rotary clubs were involved, with the opportunity to donate the face shields to an organization of their choice. 

Haupt said that the South Jordan Rotary Club wanted to give back to the Jordan Valley Medical Center because that is where the club has held meetings. 

“We used to meet there weekly and have a breakfast there,” she said. “We wanted to do something for them.”

A member of the rotary club contacted the Jordan Valley Medical Center, who said they could use the medical face shields. The club assembled the medical face shields themselves and presented them to the center on June 2. 

Face shields can help protect the wearer’s eyes, nose and mouth from exposure to the coronavirus.

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Utah in March, the South Jordan Rotary Club has found other ways to help the community as well. The group has connections to the Hopi Reservation in southeastern Utah, where Haupt said they used to make annual trips. When the pandemic started, a member of the South Jordan Rotary Club went to the Hopi Reservation to help bring necessary supplies that had been difficult to find. 

“He went down with a truck and a trailer full of supplies, formula, diapers, water, dried rice—he took so much,” she said. 

The South Jordan Rotary Club has 18 members. The club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to service. Haupt said the club focuses on one goal each year. This year’s theme being literacy, the group gave books to elementary school students and also read with them weekly through February. 

The South Jordan Rotary Club was also involved in the development of the inclusive, all-abilities playground at East Riverfront Park in South Jordan in 2019. Annually, the club helps provide for Thanksgiving food boxes for families in conjunction with Knights in Columbus in Taylorsville.