Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona employees are helping community members most at risk during the summer heat.
The workers are coming together to build 1,000 heat relief kits with essentials needed to better tolerate triple-digit temperatures.
The kits will be distributed in Maricopa, Pima and Yuma counties.
Learn more about their efforts in the video player above.
In addition to the heat relief kits, employees of the company also volunteer with the Thirst Aid campaign, which is another effort to provide water to those in need.
In 2023, 71% of heat-related deaths occurred on a day when the National Weather Service issued an Excessive Heat Warning, according to data from Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
Numbers released by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) show a total of 645 heat-associated deaths in 2023. That number surpasses the previous year's heat-associated deaths by more than 50%, according to MCDPH.
"We know that a lot of our community leaders recognize how devastating this is, so what we're going to try to do is every few weeks, work right now in the summer months on heat relief kits. And as the year progresses, we'll have different types of kits that we're going to give out to the community just depending on the seasonal conditions or the challenges they face,” said Paul Penzone, the vice president and chief community relations officer at AZ Blue.
