A sophomore from a high school is flying through the rural areas of Virginia to distribute medical supplies to the healthcare workers fighting coronavirus there.
Due to the school year ending before time, TJ Kim, 16, is putting the unexpected free time to good use by helping those in need.
The Associated Press has reported that Kim, who doesn’t even have a driving license yet, has been flying masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment to rural healthcare facilities in Virginia.
He has named his project Operation SOS which means Supplies Over Skies.
“They kind of conveyed to me that they were really forgotten about. Everyone was wanting to send donations to big city hospitals,” Kim told the Associated Press.
“Every hospital is hurting for supplies, but it’s the rural hospitals that really feel forgotten.”
Kim, who is a resident of McLean, made the maiden voyage of SOS on March 27. He flew medical supplies to a 25-bed hospital in Luray, an 85-mile trip.
He told the Associated Press that in the latest flight, he shipped “3,000 gloves, 1,000 headcovers, 500 shoe covers, 50 non-surgical masks, 20 pairs of protective eyewear and 10 concentrated bottles of hand sanitizer” to a medical facility in Woodstock.
Dave Powell, Kim’s flight instructor, told the Associated Press: “For TJ to be more concerned with the needs of others in his melancholy state just reiterated to me how amazing this young man is.”
Kim has plans to fly to all the seven hospitals in Virginian rural areas that are declared to have “critical access.”
The teen decided to play a positive role in the coronavirus scenario when he was left with free time due to the school term ending ahead of time.
Kim has one year of flying experience. He started flying when his father gifted him a flight lesson as his 15th birthday present.
Thomas, Kim’s father, told AO: “The stars really aligned here.”
As of now, there have been 3,333 coronavirus cases in Virginia so far and the deadly pandemic has claimed 66 lives.
On national level, the US has above 500,000 registered cases of COVID-19, and the virus has been the cause of at least 20,000 deaths in the country so far.
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