Anna’s Kindness families make PPE for front-line health care workers

Jenn and Megan at Regency at Lansing West nursing facility received 120 isolation gowns made by Anna’s Kindness volunteers.

Tammy at Grace Hospice at Okemos received 120 isolation gowns from Anna’s Kindness volunteers to give to her nurses and aides.

“This is incredible, thank you so much.”

Grace Hospice nurses and aides in Okemos often found themselves exposed to COVID patients but without the necessary protective isolation gowns. Similarly, the staff at Regency at Lansing West nursing facility was in need of reusable PPE for its nurses treating some of Regency’s most vulnerable residents.

Thanks to Anna’s Kindness volunteer families, the staffs at Grace and Regency each received a special delivery of 120 hospital-approved isolation gowns Thursday afternoon.

Anna’s Kindness partnered with Angels Wear Gowns, which provided the supplies needed for volunteer students and their families to create 24 approved gowns each from one box of heavy-duty plastic sheeting. For the 14 Anna’s Kindness volunteer families representing a half-dozen Ann Arbor middle schools and high schools, it was an opportunity to directly assist health care workers serving some of the state’s more at-risk residents.

And it was a pretty cool stay-at-home project that involved, well, nearly everyone.

Many of the volunteers treated this as a family project, with siblings joining in to help make 24 gowns from the roll of plastic they received. Some finished their gowns over the course of a weekend, others spread the 4-hour+ project over 5 days, but when all the work was completed, Anna’s Kindness families had made over 300 hospital-approved PPE for health care workers.

At this stage, we’d normally thank the students for their participation. And while most Anna’s Kindness projects are performed by our student volunteers, finishing these gowns would not have been possible without the hard work of supportive parents, so thank you to the Epps, Kahan, Conrad, Hewett, Turner, Marrs, Baker, Kolias, Lee, McCammon, Jacob, Ewy, Marchand and Van Lent families.

And a special thank you to Robyn with Angels Wear Gowns, for allowing us to play a small role in your wonderful mission.

#randomactsofanna