In a small town, everyone pitches in, says Tim Putnam, the CEO at a rural hospital in Batesville, Indiana.

So even as the coronavirus pandemic puts added strain on many rural hospitals’ finances and resources, they are buoyed by the support and sacrifice of their communities and individuals. Neighbors leave encouraging messages, businesses make donations and medical professionals work around the clock in compromising environments.

Even those at the top of rural hospital administration are getting into the thick of the coronavirus fight. For some CEOs, that means hitting the road to ensure their staff had the supplies they need to continue serving the communities that need them.

John Henderson, CEO of Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, formed part of a “daisy chain” transporting a supply of 70,000 surgical masks to 40 or 50 rural Texas hospital sites, he said.

Adam Willmann, President and CEO of Goodall-Witcher Healthcare in Clifton, Texas, began frequenting local hardware stores, lumber yards and feed stores to stock up on N95 masks. “I take this a lot more personally than maybe others do at a normal job because it’s not a normal job to me,” he said.