Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 4/22/2020
LONGMEADOW – When Nathan “Than” Moore, a physician assistant at the University of Vermont Medical Center emergency room, heard his colleagues fighting the COVID-19 pandemic were wearing trash bags to protect themselves from contamination due to a shortage of medical gowns, it spurred him to action.
The 2014 Bay Path University alumnus, who is also obtaining his Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Vermont, began Gowns4Good, a campaign to collect graduation gowns and donate them to medical institutions around the country.
Moore said the material that graduation gowns are made of, usually polyester, is fluid-resistant and can be cleaned for multiple uses. It also offers protective coverage of the torso, waist and arms, the areas he said are most likely to come into contact with contagions.
“It provides adequate coverage to protect the healthcare worker and the patient,” Moore said.
“We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve had thousands of gowns have come in,” since the second week of April when they began collecting donations, Moore said. The number he said he focuses on, however, is the more than 20,000 requests for gowns from medical care facilities throughout the United States.
Moore said Gowns4Good decides where to ship donated gowns based on the needs of the facility, when they are requested and the geographical region. He said they would rather keep gowns local to ease shipping cost, ecological impact and the workload of postal workers.
Gowns4Good is keeping a track of donations received and where they go through a database. Moore said the campaign has “definitely been an around the clock process,” between web design, selecting a board of his fellow MBA students to oversee the project and advertising on social media.
To donate a gown visit gowns4good.net and click the “donate” button. After answering a few questions, you will receive an address and shipping instructions.