© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Graduates Can Help Health Care Workers With PPE Through Gowns 4 Good

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right, so the graduation gowns for the class of 2020 may be pushed to the back of closets, but one ER physician's assistant had an idea about what to do with his.

NATHANIEL MOORE: Hearing of my colleagues in different geographical areas working without the appropriate protection, that image just struck me. And I had a graduation gown that was going unused, and I said what a better solution than to take the gown, put it in the hands of our medical providers on the front lines and have it be used as the PPE.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Nathaniel Moore had a gown in his closet. The hospital where he works treats COVID-19 patients, and he says they have enough PPE. But when he looked around the country at other facilities, many health care workers were using trash bags instead of PPE, and a solution occurred to him. He decided to create an organization called Gowns 4 Good.

MOORE: I have mothers that have called me and said, you know, my son or daughter has passed away, and I've been holding on to their graduation gown, did not know what to do with it. It just - they signify so much memory and so many achievements.

GREENE: Over the last month, this group has donated 10,000 graduation gowns to medical facilities, and they have 80,000 outstanding requests from facilities all around the country.

MOORE: I myself can't even imagine going to work without appropriate protection, so I can't even imagine, you know, my colleagues that are out there.

GREENE: Moore says if you're a grad who wants to do something to help with the coronavirus outbreak, donate your gown; just hang onto your mortarboard cap.

(SOUNDBITE OF U137'S "SLIDING DOORS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.