A group of retired nurses unable to return to the field have found a way to safely help first responders from behind the scenes.

Marva Wade, who worked as an operating room nurse for more than 45 years, says while many retired nurses answered Gov. Cuomo’s call in March to return to the workforce during the pandemic, she and many others with health concerns could not.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to go...if I do go, what kind of risk am I putting myself and my family?" she says.

Instead, she and a nearly a dozen other retired nurses are sorting through donated PPE for front-line workers at the Afya Foundation’s warehouse in Yonkers. The organization delivers medical supplies to areas that need it the most across the globe.

“This is what we can do as retired nurses to help out our brothers and sisters who are still on the front lines,” says former operating room nurse Marva Wade.

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The group are members of the New York State Nursing Association, which has partnered with Afya.

"Thousands of boxes of inventory was coming into the warehouse and we are working with these nurses on sorting through what we had and choosing inventory that makes sense to send to the multitude of sites we are sending stuff too," says Afya Foundation CEO Danielle Butin.

The group's goal is to make sure local medical workers have all the personal protective equipment they need to stay healthy and continue the fight on the frontlines.