Higher ed to higher calling

In early April, driving home from a shift as a physician’s assistant in the emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Than Moore had an idea.

Vermont was less than four weeks into the local appearance of the coronavirus pandemic. Working in the emergency room had Moore worrying about other hospitals, those without enough personal protective equipment for their medical workers.

Although the UVM Medical Center proved to have enough for its workers, he wondered what could be done for those he’d heard about, where workers wore plastic garbage bags as gowns for protection from coronavirus.

These bags are insufficient protection, Moore said. They don’t adequately cover all of the “critical zone.” Arms aren’t protected, neither is below the waist. There is no good way to take them off without spreading the infection.

“I had an ‘aha’ moment coming home from work,” Moore said.

At his apartment he had the gown he’ll wear for his upcoming graduation, receiving a Master of Business Administration degree from UVM.

In his closet hung two more gowns – one from his undergraduate degree and another from his degree as a physician assistant.

Something must have clicked during the around 40 hours a week he spent in the classroom working on his degree in Sustainable Innovation.

“I realized this is something that could go to a better use,” Moore said.

From ‘aha’ to ‘OMG’

This was a Friday night. By Saturday night Moore had assembled a team of volunteers and launched a website for an organization they dubbed Gowns4Good.

By Monday morning there were donated gowns at his front door.

“I was opening the door and getting hit by boxes,” he said.

By Wednesday, he realized the group would have to pivot its organizational model – the apartment wasn’t going to be big enough for all the gowns appearing.

And frequent trips to the post office to mail the gowns to hospitals needing personal protective clothing were taking up time that the full-time graduate student and physician assistant working multiple shifts a week just didn’t have.

“I became best friends with the workers at the U.S. Post Office on Shelburne Road,” Moore said. “A week too late we made the pivot and had the donors mail directly to the hospital or medical facility. This cut out the middleman and it allows the donor to have the choice of medical facility.”

Now, a little more than a month and a half after its 48-hour development and launch, Gowns4Good has organized the donation of more than 12,300 graduation gowns and has requests from medical facilities all over the United States and at least five countries – for more than 95,000 gowns.

If you’ve got a graduation gown, they sure would like for you to consider donating it.

A plethora of national media coverage

Gowns4Good has been featured in stories in regional and national news media including The New York Times, Good Morning America, Kelly and Ryan, CNN, CBS News, Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, ABC News and Better Homes & Gardens.

Instead of gathering dust in a closet, this is a way to honor graduates in this strange graduation season where so many commencement ceremonies have been canceled or radically modified, Moore said.

“The beauty is it doesn’t have to be altered. I can be worn backward and easily donned or doffed,” Moore said.

The zipper makes it easy to invert the gown by rolling it up to take off, reducing the risk of spreading the virus.

He said the thank-you stories he’s heard from both medical workers getting the gowns and donors have been overpowering.

A mother contacted Gowns4Good. She lost her son in a tragic accident a couple of years ago.

“She had been holding onto his graduation gown,” Moore said. “She said having his gown used this way is such a great way to honor his memory. There’s so many stories like this that give us shivers.”

And he says they’re getting notes and emails every day saying “Thank you so much. I can’t tell you how much better it feels to be adequately protected.”

Moore said that UVM was a bit overprepared so they’ve had enough personal protection equipment: “I can’t imagine going to work without proper protective equipment. It’s scary enough to go in knowing you’ll be exposed. It would be devastating.”

To donate or to request gowns go to gowns4good.net.