EAST COBB, Ga. — Hill Wright of Cobb County is active on Nextdoor, a social networking site specifically for neighborhoods. More than anything else, he said he uses the site to connect people.
“People have posted they needed something, maybe looking for hand sanitizer or supplies or something like that,” Wright said. “I would link them up with people that I knew that said they had it.”
On Thursday, he said he learned about a person on Nextdoor claiming to have 20,000 N95 masks, which are in short supply throughout many parts of the country. Knowing the demand, Wright said he thought he could sell them to local hospitals, but he quickly hit a roadblock.
“I guess it's not as easy as calling up and saying ‘hey, do you need some masks? We know where you can get some.’” he said.
As of Friday evening, Wright said he had heard back from Northside, Emory, Piedmont and Wellstar Kennestone, each hospital claiming they do not need any more masks. Grady, however, has yet to respond, he said.
“I’m just trying to help,” Wright said. “It’s kind of a personal thing to me. I've got a son that's out there. He's an emergency room physician treating patients, exposed to this, isolated from family and all So he's going through this. I hear all these other people begging for masks and stuff on the front lines, and my heart just breaks that they don't have what they need.”
As for the supplier who’s charging $5 per mask, Wright said he thinks they’re just trying to get their money back.
“I'm sure they're in business to make a profit, but if I felt like they were trying to sell these for a lot more than market value, I would not be interested. My goal is to try to get these in the hands of the people that need them.”
Want more East Cobb news? Follow us on Facebook.
RELATED: