Pamela Shepherd passed along this email:
Hi friends,
I hope you're hanging in there and staying as sane as possible. I can't thank you all enough for the service projects you've helped out on over years, especially in the past few days. In the last week alone, many of you have made miracles happen: from raising over $500k(!!!) to support Hollywood assistants facing layoffs, to using your lobbying skills for good to make insurance companies help restaurants stay in business, to collecting supplies for homeless families, to teaching dance online to kids stuck at home, to protecting inmates from virus risks, to moving worship services online, and on and on. The projects are too many to name. Infinite thanks for letting me be a small part of many of them.
I've got another one for us! I'm emailing more of you than usual, because this one's a heavy lift. In the past day, I've been in touch with a number of doctors and hospital leaders in LA and New York about the gown and mask shortage, which I'm sure you've seen all over the news. State, County and City leaders are doing everything they can to stand up new supply chains in partnership with business owners, fashion designers, garment workers and logistics professionals. One designer alone has identified a path to producing 60,000 units a week on the west coast. But they're going to need more help. Procurement and manufacturing take time.
As a backup that I truly hope we won't need, I'm pulling together names of volunteers on both coasts who might be able to help sew gowns for medical staff. We're still working out the logistics and are setting up partnerships to do this in a way that keeps everyone safe: volunteers, doctors, patients, hospital staff, drivers, etc. It would look like this:
Someone would deliver hospital-approved cloth to your door (leaving it on the doorstep, so no contact needed). We'll also get a list of approved fabrics, in case you're able to get any on your own.
Using simple patterns to sew as many gowns as you have time for (no serious expertise needed)
Leaving the finished gowns on your doorstep or outside of the front gate
Having the gowns picked up and then sanitized back at the hospital
Again, I hope this won't be necessary but we should be prepared. Please sign up to potentially help if you have ANY experience sewing: because you did it for a high school play, because you have to fix your uniform for work, because your grandma taught you decades ago (thanks, Grandma!), because you work in a wardrobe department, because you knitted hats for the Women's March, because you learned it in the military, because your kid tore her jersey, or just because you're learning a new hobby while you're stuck indoors. You can add your name here or email me and I'll add it. I'll send a follow-up email to those names once we have further guidance. Any other ideas would be much appreciated, as I've obviously never organized a volunteer sewing corps during a global pandemic before. No pressure at all, I know you're all doing everything you can to help your families, neighbors, clients and complete strangers get through this time. Hope to see you all in person soon. Stay safe, call if you just want to talk, and please don't ever stop helping.
Thanks and love, as always,
Jamarah
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Jamarah Hayner
JKH Consulting 646-262-8044jkhconsultingservices.com