CL
n NEWS & NOTEWORTHY n
Cobb Community
Foundation’s Operation
Santa distributes PPE to 44
local nonprofits
STAFF REPORTS
When Georgia Center for Nonprofits,
MedShare and others partnered up to gather
and distribute donated PPE across the state,
GCN’s president/CEO Karen Beavor knew
exactly who to call.
“We wanted to work through community
foundations,” Beavor said. “They have wide
reach to local nonprofits and can act swiftly
as local coordinators. They have been terrific
partners in multiple collaborative efforts with
GCN to strengthen local nonprofits.”
When Cobb Community Foundation
learned about the thousands of bottles of
hand sanitizer and masks donated from
companies like UPS, Disney and others, they
immediately launched Operation Santa.
Using its online directory of Cobb and
other nearby nonprofits, CCF immediately
reached out to its CONNECTION partners.
Paul Gankofskie fills nonprofit requests for
PPE.
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Within a few days, 44 Cobb-based nonprofits
added 3,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, 5,300
adult non-disposable masks and 20,000
Disney masks for children to their lists of
holiday wishes.
MedShare handled all of the logistics.
They could provide the sleigh, but four
pallets of hand sanitizer and masks had to be
delivered to a location where they could be
stored, packaged and picked up, requiring
more space than CCF’s office could not
accommodate.
“Not having any room at the inn was NOT
going to stop us from helping our nonprofit
partners,” said Cat Gankofskie, CCF team
member and the organization’s Nonprofit
Liaison and the Santa Claus of the operation.
“We had just cleaned out our garage, and
the kids were home on break and needed
something to do,” so Gankofskie made her
Kennesaw residence the North Pole for
Operation Santa.
On Dec. 22, MedShare’s sleigh delivered
the pallets to Gankofskie’s Kennesaw
residence and volunteer elves. Paul and
Matthew Gankofskie and Graham and
Zachary Washington put the packages
together for the 44 nonprofits to pick up their
gifts of PPE just in time for Christmas.
For more information, email Gankofskie
at Catherine@CobbFoundation.org or visit
cobbfoundation.org.
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021 | COBB LIFE 49
/cobbfoundation.org
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