Thriving in GownTown
Gowns to the People
Toward the end of May, as we delivered CAPR shields and face shields to hospitals throughout California, we started to hear more and more that what hospitals needed most were impermeable gowns. These gowns act as a protective layer to keep a patient’s bodily fluids off of a health worker’s clothes and skin, and as the COVID-19 science progresses, we’ve learned more about how much bodily fluids contribute to transmission.
So we got to working. We prototyped designs and narrowed in on one that could be produced by our independent fabricators. We visited garment factories to see how things get made at scale. We found partners to cut our material to make everything that much faster (and cheaper for us to produce).
The first week of June, we started manufacturing, with Kristy Headley at the helm of our “GownTown” operation in the Mission. Our crazy, outlandish reach goal was to produce 10,000 gowns in two weeks. In an online panel with Nation of Makers after we began production, we learned we were making gowns at a faster rate than any independent fabricator in the country!
With a recent $50,000 grant from GetUsPPE we are able to keep producing past our initially scheduled 10,000 gowns. Our grants team worked hard to get these funds, and the rapid production of our crew made it possible.
Last week, we hit 15,000 gowns. On Thursday alone we made more than 1500. And we’re still going. Our new grant funds production and distribution for an additional 6000 gowns in the Bay Area, 8000 gowns to Native Nations, and 3300 gowns for another COVID-19 epicenter that GetUsPPE will determine.
The Distribution Numbers So Far
So far, we have sent 800 gowns to native tribe sites by mail, thorough a program called Protect Our Native Elders. And that was just the start. The GetUsPPE grant allocates to send 8000 total gowns (roughly half of what we've made) to locations like these:
Navajoland Nursing Home, Chinle, Arizona
Zuni Senior Center, Zuni, New Mexico
Rosebud Sioux Tribal Court, Rosebud, South Dakota
Continuing Care Retirement Community, Brimhall, New Mexico
In local deliveries - we have brought gowns to the Morton Bakar Center in Hayward, Roots Community Healthcare in Oakland, Lifelong Medical Care in Oakland, St. Rose in Hayward, Peter Claver Community and Leland House in San Francisco, and we even managed to fit 2000 gowns in a Honda Fit for a delivery to Seton Medical Center (yes, we have photographic proof).
As the pandemic evolves, so do we. This month, that has been with quick execution of impermeable gown production to protect medical workers before manufacturers can ramp up production on a grand scale.
