CHARLEMONT — After mountains and ski resorts across New England cut their seasons short, the local snow-sports community founded “Goggles for Docs” and has already donated more than 13,000 pairs of new or used ski goggles for use as personal protective equipment at hospitals in more than 30 states.
Jon Schaefer, general manager at Berkshire East, began spearheading the Goggles for Docs effort last week, after he received an email from a doctor in New York asking for a donation of goggles. Just two days after receiving this email, Schaefer and fellow volunteers had Goggles for Docs up and running. A coinciding Facebook group provides further information on where goggles can be dropped off in individual states.
“It’s frenetic, crazy and awesome,” Schaefer said of the fast-growing project. “The goal of the Goggles for Docs program is to fill a gap between current needs in the health care system by rallying a motivated group of people, like the snow-sports community, to fill that void.”
It does not matter whether the goggles are clear or tinted. The goggles are dropped off at collection sites, wiped down with sanitizing materials, placed in sealed plastic bags and then thoroughly disinfected after arriving at the health care facilities.
Hospitals and clinics can sign up to receive donated goggles by filling out the request form on the Goggles for Docs website, gogglesfordocs.com. Dozens of new medical centers are being vetted to receive donations each day as the need for goggles continues to grow.
To find out where to donate goggles, visit the website and then select a state. Viewers will be directed to a spreadsheet for the state of their choice and will then need to select a hospital. Organizers ask that if the percentage of required goggles has exceeded 100 at a given hospital that donors pick another hospital to spread the contribution around.
It is preferred to ship the goggles — overnight if possible — to hospitals. While there are drop-off locations listed on the website, using a drop-off location could slow down the process of getting the goggles to health care workers.
Goggles have been, or are scheduled to be, donated to hospitals in Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
Melissa Gullotti, a volunteer participant and spokesperson for Goggles for Docs, heard about the project after seeing a snowboard shop near Mount Snow advertise that for every set of goggles sold, the store would donate another set. A friend then pulled her in to help with the entirely volunteer-led effort.
“We want this to grow and help as many people as possible,” Gullotti said.
Other Goggles for Docs volunteers include Trevor Crist and Gregg Blanchard of Inntopia and Victor Waryas, an avid mountain sports enthusiast who works in the music industry. The team continued to form with the additions of Poli Nightingale, Berkshire East employee Gabe Porter-Henry and Adam Gardner from the environmental nonprofit Reverb.
To further spread awareness of and collect donations for Goggles for Docs, Reverb is adding a “Virtual Apres Ski Music Series” of online concerts to its Facebook page at facebook.com/reverb. Artists perform 30- to 45-minute sets from their living rooms. The concert series kicked off last Thursday and Friday with artists Stephen Kellogg and Pete Kilpatrick. Chad Hollister performed Monday.
The series continues Wednesday and Friday this week, starting at 7 p.m., with performances from Recycled Percussion and DJ Logic.
Fans can use the Goggles for Docs website, which will be displayed on the Reverb page, to donate goggles. There will also be instructions for providing monetary donations to purchase new goggles from participating brands.
A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled the names of Pete Kilpatrick and Victor Waryas.