After thousands of entries, the Mazda Heros Program rewarded a Missouri nurse practitioner with a new car for her help on the frontlines.
When the coronavirus crisis started, Tonnya Taggart was furloughed from the clinic she worked at.
Taggart soon decided to go where her presence was required the most, the areas hit the hardest by COVID in the United States: on the east coast and Louisiana.
“I work in a clinic here in the St. Louis area and it was early April when I went to the east coast and they were having their COVID crisis there,” said Taggart. “Just decided I’d help in Maryland and I did that for 13 weeks. It was rough at that time.”
In October, the Mazda Heroes Program took submissions and got over 1,000 entries.
People nominated family and friends for their work to the community.
Jon Ceretto heard regarding the Japanese automaker Mazda’s promotion and nominated Tonnya as a hero.
“She went to the east coast capital region Washington DC region and she went and worked at a hospital for 13 weeks,” Ceretto said. “We talked every night. It was just brutal.”
Sara Batchelor, the general manager at Bommarito Mazda West County remarked that people like Tonnya are who the automaker wants to honor because she jumped when the opportunity was present.
“She didn’t have to go all over the country helping with COVID, but she felt like she needed to,” Batchelor said.
“We all in healthcare are working hard right now and it’s been the roughest year in my 35 years of healthcare,” said Taggart.
“We’ve had some really tough times and without all my co-workers and peers and without him I couldn’t have done it. It’s just been a hard year for all of us,” added Toggart.
