Uniting with purpose

During this grave period of uncertainty, the strength and the spirit of Owls shined through. Front-line healthcare providers worked around the clock, while faculty and staff showed the creativity, drive and grit that define Owls, nimbly pivoting to virtual modes of instruction and enabling the university to continue to fulfill its educational mission. 

And the entire Temple family pitched in to help.

In the months following the crisis, Temple was one of the first institutions to distribute funds it received via the CARES Act, sending more than $14.5 million directly to students. Then in March 2021, as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRSSA) Act, the university disbursed roughly the same amount to 16,201 students who were enrolled for the spring 2021 semester—including those pursuing undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees—through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) II. 

Giving to the university skyrocketed, as well. Overall donations to Temple in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, totaled $108 million—more than $9 million above the previous record. Here are just a few highlights from an unprecedented year.

• Owls contributed more than $140,000 to the Student Emergency Aid Fund, which helped students pay for such immediate necessities as rent, groceries and internet access.
• In just a few months, donors responded to a special fundraising campaign to support the urgent needs of both Temple’s front-line workers and neighbors by contributing over $1.13 million—along with countless gifts of masks, shields, gloves, meals and other items.
• Fundraising initiatives for Temple University Hospital and the Lewis Katz School of Medicine raised more than $3 million to combat COVID-19 and support the North Philadelphia community.
• Temple Toast, the university’s annual day of giving, in April 2020 focused entirely on supporting students and front-line responders. More than $518,000 was raised in 24 hours—including $56,000 in support of three emergent needs initiatives at the university: the production of hand sanitizer at the School of Pharmacy, the distribution of personal protective equipment at the School of Podiatry, and the manufacture of face shields by the Temple University COVID-19 Assistance Team. In all, the 2020 Day of Giving totals beat the 2019 amount by nearly $40,000.

And the giving has continued throughout the course of the pandemic. In the current fiscal year, donors have nearly matched last year's record Temple Toast giving with another $463,292; gave $223,313 during Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29, 2020, which included support for students; and, as of mid-May 2021, have contributed another $90,554 to the Student Emergency Aid Fund.

Cheers for this pharmacy professor

Early in the pandemic, David Lebo watched a news report about distilleries converting from producing whiskey and other spirits to hand sanitizer amid a nationwide shortage.

“We could do that,” the professor of pharmaceutical sciences and director of Current Good Manufacturing Processes (cGMP) at Temple University’s School of Pharmacy, said to himself. 

Normally, the cGMP lab—one of only six associated with a school of pharmacy in the nation—supports and ensures the expert production and packaging of clinical supplies and the manufacture of high-quality treatments and placebos.

But, in late March 2020, to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Lebo and his assistant Justine Williams used a formula published by the World Health Organization to begin producing hand sanitizer and placing it in sterile spray bottles for use at Temple University Hospital and the Kornberg School of Dentistry. 

Until commercial supplies became more readily available last summer, they produced between 500 to 600 liters of sanitizer. Lebo also donated sanitizer to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where his late wife worked, and the Bethesda Project’s two Philadelphia homeless shelters.

“Things were really difficult at the hospital, and it was very personal for me,” explained Lebo. He was particularly thinking of two front-line professionals: Gerard Criner, chair and professor of thoracic medicine and surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine and director of the Temple Lung Center, who led the hospital’s COVID-19 response; and Nur Kazazz, PHR ’14, a clinical pharmacy specialist at the hospital who focuses on lung patients.

“Dr. Criner has been a big supporter of mine throughout my research working on multiple clinical trials, and Nur is a former student who’s like a daughter to me,” said Lebo. “I couldn’t bear the thought of them risking their lives facing patients without having some protection.”