With the number of COVID-19 cases rising daily, L.A. County hospitals — bracing for a surge in patients — have been looking for medical supplies from anywhere they can get them, including from community volunteers like Denise Winn.

Winn, whose city of Orange business WINN Expo Solutions handles shipping for trade shows, used connections in China to purchase a shipment of 10,000 N95 masks, which she delivered to Orange County and Los Angeles medical communities and senior centers this week. The N95 face masks are designed for a close facial fit and provide an efficient filtration of airborne particles, according to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration.

“Since all the trade shows have been shutdown until the fall, this gives me time to focus on charity,” Winn said. “I reached out to different companies, through my vendors, asking, ‘Can you help me find these masks?’

“With manufacturers, the amount that I want to buy isn’t enough,” Winn said. “It’s about a million masks per order to produce, so now I have people going through different trading companies looking for warehouses with the masks.”

Winn has also partnered with the nonprofit Operation Be Kind; that group helped receive the shipments this week at the headquarters of Aeronet Worldwide, a Compton company that is a client of Winn’s. Aeronet is considered an essential business and is allowed to remain open.

Denise Winn, of Newport Beach, packs up N95 masks for local hospitals at Aeronet Worldwide in Compton with Sandy Nguyen on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 after receiving a shipment of 10,000 masks from China for the coronavirus pandemic. Winn, whose business is shipping for trade shows, says she used her connections in China to purchase the masks and is partnering with the nonprofit Operation Be Kind and had them shipped to her client Aeronet Worldwide. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Denise Winn, of Newport Beach, packs up N95 masks for local hospitals at Aeronet Worldwide in Compton with Sandy Nguyen on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 after receiving a shipment of 10,000 masks from China for the coronavirus pandemic. Winn, whose business is shipping for trade shows, says she used her connections in China to purchase the masks and is partnering with the nonprofit Operation Be Kind and had them shipped to her client Aeronet Worldwide. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

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Denise Winn, of Newport Beach, packs up N95 masks for local hospitals at Aeronet Worldwide in Compton with Sandy Nguyen on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 after receiving a shipment of 10,000 masks from China for the coronavirus pandemic. Winn, whose business is shipping for trade shows, says she used her connections in China to purchase the masks and is partnering with the nonprofit Operation Be Kind and had them shipped to her client Aeronet Worldwide. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)



“We are launching this mission to provide essential medical equipment to protect our medical professionals and also provide safe masks for our senior community,” Operation Be Kind said in a recent statement on its Facebook page.

Whittier Hospital received 2,000 masks from the first shipment and Fountain Valley Hospital received 1,000 masks. In the coming days, deliveries will also be made to Kaiser Anaheim, Kaiser Irvine, CHOC, UCLA, Cedar Sinai, Coast Community Hospital and local senior centers.

“All the masks have been FDA approved. They have proper certification,” Winn said. “And 100% of the proceeds will be for purchasing more surgical masks and N95 masks.”

Winn said there are thousands of more masks she is in the process of having shipped from warehouses in Shanghai and Taicang, in China. Another shipment, expected to arrive Monday, April 6, will bring 80,000 more surgical and N95 masks.