Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation and Blok Industries Deliver Hazmat Suits to Navajo and Hopi Tribes
The Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation has partnered with Blok Industries to donate and deliver approximately 20,000 Hazmat Suits to the COVID-19 affected Navajo and Hopi Tribes.
The Navajo Nation, which covers more than 27,000 square miles in New Mexico, Northern Arizona and Utah, is third only to New York and New Jersey in the nation’s declared COVID-19 Hot Spots.
U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater’s granddaughter, Alison Goldwater Ross, founded the Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation, a nonprofit corporation qualified as a charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, in 2017, to digitize, curate, restore and preserve Goldwater’s extensive collection of 15,000 negatives and 25 miles of historical images primarily of Arizona’s native people and landscapes.
Upon learning the Coronavirus was hitting the Hopi and Navajo tribes the hardest, Ross pivoted the focus of the Foundation and reached out to find resources for aid.
“We are determined to do everything in our power to help fight this scourge that is an indescribable tragedy,” Ross said. “That is why we have set up a special Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation relief fund to assist with our efforts.”
The Foundation’s efforts have been made possible by Blok Industries, a safety and disaster relief supplier headquartered in Gainesville, Ga. Ross’s husband and legal counsel for Blok, Robert Arkin connected Ross with Karen Davidson, Blok’s President.
When Davidson learned of the reservation’s casualty count eclipsing that of states with much larger populations without a corresponding influx of aid, she sprang into action.
“I knew this was something we had to do,” Davidson said. “We at Blok couldn’t stand by knowing the urgent need when we could make the hazmat suits available immediately.”
Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma stated, “We are very grateful to the Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation for reaching out to Blok Industries on behalf of the Hopi community to provide PPE supplies and hazmat suits for our first responders….We appreciate their unwavering support and acknowledge their sincere efforts to help protect our Hopi-Tewa people. We gladly embrace positive support for the Hopi Tribe. Our hats off to Blok Industries, Alison Goldwater and the Goldwater Foundation for facilitating the contribution to our fight against COVID-19. Kwa-kwah.”
