The Power of Local Communities
One group’s efforts to make protective gowns (PPE)during the Covid-19 Pandemic
I’ve been really moved by the heart that people show also at the local level and around the world, that even when our leaders are demonstrating complete incompetence, in so many regards, with this crisis, there are communities of people locally and around the world that are creative resourceful, energetic, and are willing to tackle this problem — everyone from high tech 3d printer groups around the world, to people with a pair of scissors who are willing to get a cheap shower curtain and make it into something useful.
The following is an interview with Judy Burke, a freelance writer who organized a group of strangers in Portland, Oregon to design and make protective gowns for medical workers and people who are working with the homeless.
How It Began: Personal Protective Equipment Shortages: Protective Gowns as Well as Masks Needed
It started with my becoming sick on March 11th. I had a sore throat and then I developed a mild version of the COVID with all the symptoms and so did my family and we quarantined. I spoke with my doctor’s office every day to find out if testing was being expanded, and it wasn’t.
That’s how I learned that they had a PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) shortage there. My son who is in high school, is a maker and has a 3d printer. He was looking at printing masks, but discovered that on his 3d printer it takes a long time.
He went into the Dollar Tree store to look for large pieces of plastic that he could make some other model and he came home with a shower curtain liner that was made out of Kiva, which is a non toxic plastic that’s impermeable and waterproof. We had the idea of using them to make gowns, since masks on the only thing that are needed.
Getting Help From The Neighbors
I made a prototype gown just with two arm holes and ties in the back out of the shower curtain liner sleeves out of the shower curtain itself. It was not good. I knew I needed help.
So I got on our Next Door group. We have a very active Next Door group in our neighborhoods in Northeast (Portland, Oregon).
I asked for help with people would be willing to so who had scissors or had sewing machines or who would be willing to organize or run for supplies. And I got an incredible response right away.
Basically, this turned into a group of about ten people. We didn’t know each other at all, but it included two retired nurses, a rabbi, some students, someone who works at Bonneville Power Administration.
One of the women who was people who responded,offered her porch as a drop off point which I needed, because I was quarantined. I couldn’t do any of this work myself. But I could organize, I could also work on the design and the instructions and do it all online.
We got the group together, got the two retired nurses on the phone, who looked at my awful design and came up with a better design and we started making those.
A Turn for the Worse and a Chance Meeting
Then my husband got quite sick — sicker than than me and started having chest pains and we both had the cough. Finally, after 10 days, he was told to come in and take a test. Because I lived with him. I was told to also take a test.
I went through Broadway medical clinics’s new drive through testing center and took my test. While waiting for the flu test results to come back, I asked the nurse who’d given me the test how I could reach somebody who was the nurse manager or higher, so I could talk to them about our gowns.
That would be me, she said. By coincidence, the Head of Quality at Broadway Medical Clinic was was doing the testing. She said that they were very short on gowns, and it sounded like a like a very good idea. She also said they were working on a solution with a laundromat so that they could use fabric gowns that would be laundered but that it hasn’t come through yet. They were quite nervous.
Organizing Protective Gown Production Virtually
I couldn’t physically do any of it [gown production] because I was sick. I had symptoms, I couldn’t go to Dollar Tree and get the supplies. I couldn’t drop them off at the porch. And I couldn’t sew them because I would contaminate them.
But what I could do was organize everyone online, figure out who needed to do what, how many people had scissors and could cut out sleeves and tunics, and how many people had sewing machines and could sew them into the completed gowns.
I just needed someone’s porch and a bunch of boxes so that people would have a place, safe place to drop and drop off and pick everything up. We delivered our first batch of 18 gallons to them and then they were able to secure a solution to the laundromat.
People Who Work with The Homeless Have No Protection
We learned that one of the women in the group had a contact at Central City concern, who said that they had nothing ,and their outreach workers were going out and dealing with the most vulnerable people on the streets, and they had nothing to protect them. They’re on the front lines, but had no access to personal protective equipment.
So our next batch of twenty two went to them.
I just delivered 10 to a group called Free Hot Soup, which is an ad hoc group of people that serve meals to the homeless at Director Park and have been doing that for over a year. And they’re still serving food and they’re handing out bags with with peanut butter and jelly. People really need food and they have no way to get it. But these workers also have no protection. So we deliver gowns to them.
I think that they’re they are finding some solutions and they also are not as open to anything homemade, as they were, say 10 days ago.I think that that the medical community is in a little bit better shape.
But the community of people that do outreach to the homeless is is not in better shape. I’ve heard about the need at places like Central City concern and also Transition Projects is another one that I’ve heard is in really dire need. And so we’re going to continue our efforts with that.
Going Public with the Design
We’ve been doing this almost two weeks now, at first, I was worried that we would quickly run out of
shower curtain liners and shower curtains at Dollar Tree stores because we were basically people, our organizers were going in and was donated money and buying up as many as they could.
At the same time, we were making the instructions better and redesigned the gown to be better and smaller. I started getting requests for the instructions. I was asking group members, whether we should just publish them online and get them out. Are we were ready for that?
There’s a rabbi in the group and I asked what he thought and he said, “This isn’t ours. It’s not our problem. This is everybody’s problem to solve together.”
We decided to go public but I needed to finalize the instructions. I stopped sewing the gowns myself and just worked on the instruction set and illustrations and testing it and having other people test it until it was perfect.
( Note: By this time Judy recovered from Covid 19, and was cleared to work gown production)
I discovered on to Facebook that there are all kinds of new ad hoc COVID-19 maker groups that are international and realized it would be very simple to distribute this worldwide to other people who wanted to make gowns once it was ready.
It only took about 20 minutes for me to upload the file to a whole bunch of different groups all around the world. Now there’s an instruction set and an includes a picture of me without my head, just my body wearing a gown.
The instructions are out there, and people have been asking for them and downloading them. So now hopefully, gowns are being made all all over the world. They’re very simple to make, They just require a straight line on a sewing machine and not any more skills than that.
The Power of People to Come up to Solve Problems and the Willingness to Step Up
Suzanne: Since you started this project, has anything surprised you?
I wouldn’t say I was surprised, because I’ve already known this about people, but when I put the request out on Next Door, people stepped up. There’s so many people who are good at heart who wants to help And who will just jump in when needed. A lot of the people who responded, weren’t sure they could do it, but we’re willing to and if they couldn’t do it, they were willing to donate money or they were willing to get supplies or to drop things off on the porch or to organize. People have a wellspring that can be tapped in times like this.
I was very happy to see that response.
Suzanne: What do you hope might come out of this situation?
I’ve been really moved by the heart that people show also at the local level and around the world, that even when our leaders are demonstrating complete incompetence, in so many regards, with this crisis, there are communities of people locally and around the world that are creative resourceful, energetic, and are willing to tackle this problem — everyone from high tech 3d printer groups around the world, to people with a pair of scissors who are willing to get a cheap shower curtain and make it into something useful.
Communities, really meaningful communities can spring up under the most unlikely circumstances. I feel very close to these people who I’ve never actually been able to see more than a glimpse of from my car.
Experiences like this can bring out the best in people and also create communities and where we’re planning to have one big party at a local restaurant as soon as we’re all cleared to do so.
Listen to the full interview here:
