Florida National Guard Spc. Zachary Snyder, 2-124th Regiment 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, receives a donated and decorated medal from a Memorial Healthcare Systems employee at C.B. Smith Park Community Based Testing Site. The FLNG is working closely with federal, state and local partners during the COVID-19 response.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Memorial Healthcare Systems Memorial Foundation partnered with We Finish Together to supply donated medals to children so they could decorate them for Florida National Guard Soldiers and local partners at a COVID-19 testing site.

Sharon Truske, director of major gifts Memorial Foundation, with the support of We Finish Together and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, worked with the children to decorate, personalize and present the medals to the Florida Guard and staff at C.B. Smith Park Community Based Testing Site (CBTS).

“It’s touching to receive something like this from children who recognize what we are doing here,” said Spc. Nicholas Y. Owen, an infantryman with the 53rd IBCT. “We loved it and receiving the medals encourages us to continue with the mission with dedication and perseverance."

The C.B. Smith Park CBTS is supported by Task Force Bravo 2-124th Regiment, 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) and is a joint operation of the FLNG and Memorial Healthcare Systems. More than 200 Soldiers and local people staff the site.

“We wanted to do something uplifting for the troops and staff,” said Truske. “The foundation takes care of Memorial Health workers; we consider them family, and the National Guard is a part of our family now, too.”

The test site was the first in South Florida and has collected over 18,000 samples to date.

The Florida National Guard has more than 2,900 members on duty in support of Florida’s COVID-19 response. Soldiers and Airmen have administered more than 80,000 sample collections at nine CBTS. The Guard is also helping screen passengers arriving at seven Florida airports.

Kids honor Florida Guard members with special medals: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/750284/one-kind-medals

For more National Guard news: http://www.nationalguard.mil/

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How the National Guard is helping: https://www.nationalguard.mil/coronavirus/

Photos of the National Guard response: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thenationalguard/albums/72157713483827538

Latest from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/

U.S. response: https://www.coronavirus.gov/

White House-CDC response: https://www.coronavirus.gov/