LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer thanked Amway for donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to Michigan hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In the past month, we’ve seen Michigan businesses and their employees step up to protect their communities from the spread of COVID-19,” said Whitmer. “Amway has really stepped up to help keep Kent County families and health care workers safe during this time."
The thank you comes less than 24 hours after Whitmer called out Betsy DeVos, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education for her family's involvement in a protest happening at the Capitol on Wednesday.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan Freedom Fund is a Lansing-based organization that advocates for conservative policies and has strong ties to the DeVos family.
The group is listed as hosts on the Facebook page for the protest. And while Betsy DeVos hasn't contributed since becoming a member of Trump's cabinet, members of her family, including her husband Dick DeVos, have continued to make many political contributions.
The protest Wednesday, is a car-based protest and drivers are expected to stay in their cars causing a "gridlock" in downtown Lansing around noon.
Today, it seems Whitmer is putting party politics aside and focusing on helping health care workers.
"I’m eager to work with them [Amway] and every other business that wants to contribute their time and machinery to helping us fight this virus," she said. "This is an all hands on deck moment for our state, and we're working with anyone and everyone to get the personal protective equipment our front line health care workers need to stay safe and save lives.”
Betsy DeVos is also taking steps to help secure more PPE for health care workers. She posted on Twitter Tuesday that career and technical education (CTE) programs can donate or loan PPE and other medical supplies purchased with federal funds to hospitals.
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