Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers are now in desperate need of personal protective equipment (PPE) and are using anything they can to protect themselves. 

Even makeshift trash bag gowns and masks cut from bed sheets are being used.  

As many school graduation and commencement ceremonies around the world have been disrupted, Gowns4good are asking for all students (past and present), to donate their graduation gowns to support those healthcare providers who are without proper protection. 

Gowns4good was created by Than Moore, who has been practicing as an emergency medicine physician assistant for the past five years, and is a current UVM Grossman School of Business, Sustainable Innovation MBA student.

Graduation gowns are more effective than alternative gowns given their length, sleeves, and easy donning with zippered access. Efforts are being made to increase PPE production, but the demand is increasing too quickly. The initiative gives graduation gowns that aren't able to be worn this year or might be collecting dust at someone's home, a new life and purpose.

Current classmate and Gowns4Good organizer, Taran Catania, while looking forward to hopefully graduating in person with her MBA cohort at the University of Vermont later this summer, wants to help those on the frontlines now; so she donated her gown.

"I feel like there's not a lot I can do right now since I'm not a healthcare provider," she said. "Having something tangible that you can send to someone who needs it right now, that really just grabbed onto me. I can be involved. I can help. I can do something.”

Learn more at gowns4good.net to see how you can help.