The community is lending a hand to health care workers including students in the nursing program at California State University, San Bernardino Palm Desert Campus, as they assist with testing residents for COVID-19.

And one PDC student is joining in the fight against the pandemic.

On April 30, the PDC nursing students received a donation of much-needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from Desert Care Network.

The equipment, which includes N-95 masks, gowns and gloves, will be used by CSUSB Palm Desert Campus nursing students to continue their street medicine efforts in Palm Springs, providing healthcare services to homeless and unsheltered people at Well in the Desert's free lunch programs with UC Riverside School of Medicine.

On the giving end, in response to the pandemic, Lisa Halleck-Ellerbroek, a junior at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus majoring in liberal arts and humanities, has sewn more than 60 masks with her daughters, Whitney and Alexandria, and donated them to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and the Mizell Senior Center in Palm Springs.

Halleck-Ellerbroek says that she and her daughters enjoy volunteering together at their church and at local walks as greeters. Since they are home bound due to COVID-19, they decided to serve in another way. She says that sewing came naturally to her 16-year-old daughter, Whitney, and she is her "eager assistant!"

Lisa Halleck-Ellerbroek, a junior at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus majoring in liberal arts and humanities, has sewn more than 60 masks with her daughters, Whitney and Alexandria, and donated them to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and the Mizell Senior Center in Palm Springs.Lisa Halleck-Ellerbroek, a junior at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus majoring in liberal arts and humanities, has sewn more than 60 masks with her daughters, Whitney and Alexandria, and donated them to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and the Mizell Senior Center in Palm Springs.