Local medical facilities are receiving thousands of protective masks, thanks to an effort that began with a group chat.

Danbury Hospital has already received more than 5,000 surgical masks, and it is due to get 1,500 of the N95 disposable respirators Tuesday.

Those donations and others were organized by Chinese-American members of a chat group. Having seen the impact on health care workers in Asia, they raised almost $20,000 and used their expertise to source and ship the gear to the area as quickly as possible

"We said when it was happening in China, Chinese-Americans were involved in the battle because we feel we are Chinese...we were born in China...and now it is spreading to the rest of the world. We feel we are involved because we feel we are Americans now," says organizer Ling Wu,

 Sen. Tony Hwang told News 12 he wants people to realize how hard Connecticut's Chinese community is working to be part of the solution. Many of the people involved are from Danbury, Ridgefield and other nearby towns.