Purdue seeking volunteers to make PPE gowns

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — A volunteer group of staff and faculty at Purdue University is looking for more help to offer isolation gowns to first responders and health care workers dealing with COVID-19. The group is looking for volunteers to sew the much-needed gowns from home and on campus.

Purdue’s head of the Department of Computer Graphics and Technology, Nathan Hartman, is leading the effort. Hartman also is co-executive director of the Indiana Manufacturing Competitiveness Center at Purdue.

“We have requests for thousands of gowns that need to be filled ASAP,” he said. “We need volunteers to come to campus to sew sets of gowns. It helps to have some experience for the sewing.”

Other volunteers are also needed at the Manufacturing Center to help prepare and package other PPE for shipping. The volunteer groups delivered nearly 1,000 pieces of PPE last week and are expected to soon finish another 1,000 pieces. Volunteers may sign up here.