Disney parks around the world remain closed during the coronavirus pandemic. However, Disney is repurposing one of the parks’ most popular apparel items into something that will help healthcare workers fighting the virus on the front lines.
Anyone who has been to a Disney park has probably seen the iconic plastic rain ponchos featuring Mickey Mouse on the back. They usually pop up quickly when those sudden storms roll in because they’re a convenient way to stay protected in bad weather.
Disney officials were inspired by medical professionals who started using rain ponchos due to a shortage of personal protective equipment, or PPE. So, they gathered their resources and put together a shipment of 150,000 rain ponchos to donate to MedShare, an organization working to help provide medical equipment to front-line medical workers during the pandemic.
The rain ponchos are being used to help preserve the limited supplies of hospital gowns and scrubs in hospitals and clinics.
Disney’s latest donations are the most recent among a series of contributions made to help alleviate shortages due to the coronavirus over the past month, and this isn’t the only donation they’ve made to help doctors and nurses who need more PPE. Disney has donated 100,000 N95 face masks to the states of California, Florida and New York.
Disney also made another donation direct from their parks, giving 270 tons of food inventory left behind in their kitchens when the parks closed to local food banks in California, Florida, Hawaii and Paris.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Charles Redding, president and CEO of MedShare, in a statement. “We have to find ways to pool our resources and work together to help the healthcare workers who are doing their very best to treat patients and contain COVID-19. We appreciate Disney partnering with us to support hospitals and healthcare workers on the frontlines.”
Kudos to Disney for pitching in during this difficult time!
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