Lancaster-based company Emerald Asset Management PA has provided personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joseph E. Besecker, president and CEO of Emerald, started the Emerald Foundation in 2010. The "E," as the foundation is commonly known, purchased the former Jewish Community Center in Manheim Township in 2017, nearly 25,000 square feet of space on approximately nine acres. Filling it with nonprofit partners, the E was eager to support the community and soon added a separate focus on electronic gaming, or esports, as a way to help students acquire and refine in-demand technical skills. In recent years, Besecker has developed a national network to enhance the foundation's impact in the esports world.
Besecker heard about COVID-19 in early January and soon learned that not enough PPE was available locally. In early March, the E launched its Call to Arms for Operation Emerald, a commitment to furnish free PPE to the frontline medical and first responder community. In addition, it began planning, promoting, and hosting esports tournaments for students stuck at home.
Besecker transitioned the E facility - by this time closed in accordance with the orders of Gov. Tom Wolf - into a 24-hour PPE acquisition and distribution center.
To fill the void, Besecker ramped up quickly, calling for help from his foundation leadership team, including his wife, Martha Besecker, and his sister-in-law Susie Kettler-Ziegler, as well as local businessman Robert Zuckerman and Dr. Christian R. Macedonia, CEO of a local life sciences company. This new team was nicknamed the Wolverines, a nod to the movie "Red Dawn."
With some early success procuring PPE, the Wolverines team was added as a partner to the Southern Central Regional Task Force of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
Besecker, with assistance from associates, seeded the E's PPE acquisition initiative with his own money and saw community dollars flow in after that. With the funding, the E has supplied approximately 60,000 pieces of PPE for free, including face masks, gowns and gloves, to frontline medical workers, firefighters, police officers, funeral home employees, bus drivers, nursing home staff, and home health workers throughout Lancaster County and beyond.
On April 8, the beginning of Passover, Besecker connected with a Great Neck, N.Y., based PPE brokerage firm, whose employees are Orthodox Jews. They had available supply, so Besecker wired them the money on the spot, but knew he could not pick up the PPE before sundown, when the supplier's staff would no longer be able to work.
Besecker turned to his Wall Street business associates, emailing people he knew who lived on Long Island. Within minutes, Jerry S. Arzú, of brokerage Telsey Advisory Group, was en route from his nearby home to pick up the 14 boxes before sundown and then drove to meet Besecker along the New Jersey Turnpike to save Besecker the trip across New York City.
Besecker has also received donated, handmade cotton face masks daily from local Amish and Mennonite communities, which he distributes along with the medical-grade equipment he purchases.
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