Response Team Receives Donation For Work During Pandemic

By Dean Wright, The Bristol Press

July 9, 2021

Bristol’s Community Emergency Response Team recently received a $2,500 donation in recognition of its services assisting the community during the pandemic.

During the months of November and December covid cases were growing and Bristol’s Community Emergency Response Team deployed to help with testing with the Bristol Community Health Center, according to a release. A staging area was created in an empty downtown parking lot to streamline testing efforts and reduce traffic on North Main Street.

CERT helped at the site for 30 days with the community health center in performing 3,600 tests. This was part of around 675,000 other statewide initiative tests.

The donation came from Community Health Center and was presented in a check from Director of Community Engagement Gary Wallace and Eastern Regional Vice President Amy Taylor. Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu and Bristol Director of Emergency Management Harley Graime were present for the check presentation.

“The CERT team’s efforts during this pandemic are to be commended. The city of Bristol is grateful for the volunteers who make up CERT,” Graime said in the release. “In addition to assisting with covid testing in partnership with the Community Health Center, the CERT team assisted with food distribution in partnership with the Bristol Board of Education in the early days of the pandemic and was in charge of traffic control for the covid vaccine point of distribution at ESPN North campus on various days throughout this past April.”