Texas Tech System Joins Giving Tuesday Now Event

24-hour fundraising effort focuses on supporting students impacted by COVID-19, research and community health care efforts

Today is Giving Tuesday Now, a global day of philanthropy and unity coordinated as an emergency response to the unprecedented need created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Texas Tech University System, along with thousands of other nonprofits, is participating in the one-day giving effort by encouraging alumni and friends, who are able, to support system-wide COVID-19 relief efforts.

Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 as a global day to do good. By bringing attention to philanthropic causes, the initiative, which is traditionally held in November, raised more than $2 billion in 2019 and encouraged millions of people worldwide to give. Today’s campaign is a new global day of giving to help address the COVID-19 crisis.

Texas Tech’s Response

Since the coronavirus causing COVID-19 first reached the U.S., the Texas Tech University System and its four universities have prioritized the health of student, faculty and staff and have been engaged in the communities they serve through health care and related research.

Texas Tech research labs are providing West Texas communities with 24-hour turnaround for COVID-19 test kits, adding dozens of volunteers to ramp up processing of more than 350 samples a day. Faculty at the Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy, part of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at Amarillo, are leading statewide efforts to manufacture Viral Transport Medium, a key component for COVID-19 testing.

Students, faculty and staff at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso are on the front lines, caring for patients in cities across the western half of the state including Amarillo, El Paso, Abilene, Midland, Odessa and Lubbock. At the system’s flagship institution, Texas Tech University researchers have donated more than 100,000 pieces of personal protective equipment from their laboratories to health care workers, and students are collaborating to 3D-print face shields that have been donated across the region.

Donors wanting to help as part of Giving Tuesday Now can support relief efforts, health care and research related to COVID-19. Gifts may also be made to traditional needs for student scholarships and university programs — all of which face challenges related to the pandemic.

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