Published on : Monday, April 13, 2020
On Wednesday the gift was generously donated and delivered by Sunshine Insurance Group, owner of New York’s Baccarat Hotel, and Dr. Philip Wang, founder of United Rehab Center. Hermann Elger, Chairman, HANYC Foundation and Managing Director, Baccarat New York alongside Vijay Dandapani, President and CEO, Hotel Association of New York City, Raymond Sun, Executive Asset Manager as well as Jia Hong Zhu of Baccarat Hotel New York were also present at the time of the donation. Wayne Zimmerman, Chief Operating Officer, Elmhurst Hospital accepted the donation with much acknowledgment.
Previously, the HANYC Foundation gifted 5,000 N95 masks to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan on April 1 making this the second contribution by the group in recent weeks. The Hotel Association of New York City represents nearly 300 member hotel owners and operators. The entire group has stepped forward to help the city battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The support comes at an unprecedented moment of crisis when the city is on the verge of an economic collapse that poses an existential threat to the hotel industry and the 50,000 New York citizens it employs.
The Hotel Association and individual hotel owners have also been working around the clock with city and state governments to make entire hotels available to frontline health care workers. This action is helping to relieve New York City’s overburdened hospitals by arranging makeshift medical facilities.