COVID-19

Volunteers create hospital gowns for Stony Brook Southampton

Though a state mandate ordered Reilly Architectural to suspend its operations last week, volunteers at the Calverton plant have been working to produce hospital gowns for those on the front lines at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

The architectural company is part of a team of East End businesses working to create approximately 10,000 much-needed gowns for the hospital. Hospital staff go through an estimated 1,200 gowns each day, officials said.

“No request was too large and everyone eagerly jumped aboard the project,” Ken Wright, who chairs the Southampton Hospital Association, said in a statement Thursday. 

Mr. Wright worked with Dr. Darrin Wiggins, vice chair of the Emergency Department at the hospital to produce several prototypes of the isolation gowns until they came up with a design similar to one already used by the hospital’s staff.

Next, Riverhead Building Supply donated 300,000 square feet of polyethylene and 10 miles worth of tape to mobilize volunteers at Reilly Architectural to begin cutting the gowns.

The architectural company, which usually manufactures windows and doors, is headquartered at the Enterprise Park at Calverton.

The gowns were temporarily stored at the Tuckahoe School, where a team packed the blanks into bins with tape and instructions. Drivers sent the gowns to volunteers working from home to be assembled, bagged and sealed.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital physicians and nurses in the protective isolation gowns locally produced and hand-assembled by over 100 dedicated East End volunteers, along with support from Riverhead Building Supply, Reilly Architectural, and Wright & Company Construction. (Credit: Stony Brook Medicine)

The team of nearly 100 volunteers included community members and more than 25 employees from Bridgehampton-based Wright & Company Construction.

“In these troubled times, for those of us that are staying home, it’s so valuable to be able do something that feels worthwhile, and this absolutely feels worthwhile,” Mr. Wright said. “Our community wants to do everything possible to support our local health care workers on the front lines battling COVID-19.”