Fashionable PPE wear at Rockleigh

Staff at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, smiling underneath their masks, decorated their personal protective equipment — including masks, coveralls, and gowns — for a PPE fashion show. The show was organized and sponsored by Sharing Seats and livestreamed to patients’ rooms. Sharing Seats is a nonprofit organization that provides sick and underprivileged children and families event tickets that otherwise might have gone unused; it donated gift certificates to the staff for various costume categories.

“We noticed staff had been decorating their protective gear with Chanel and Fendi logos and thought it would be great to bring the team together through a fashion show,” Sunni Herman, the Jewish Home’s executive vice president, said. “When Mike Dube from the organization Sharing Seats heard about it, he offered to provide Amazon gift cards as prizes.”

The fashion show was aired live on the home’s internal TV channel, and residents could watch it in their rooms. It included pre-show red-carpet interviews and featured staff cheering each other on as they strutted their stuff to songs like “Covid-busters” (to the tune of Ghostbusters).

The staff wore all the PPE they modeled on the runway throughout the building after the show, as they went about their work.

The show is part of ongoing efforts to maintain high morale in the face of the devastating pandemic. The home also has been posting #DischargeDance videos to their Facebook and Instagram pages celebrating elders who have beaten covid-19 and moved out of isolation.

To send letters or videos of support to elders at the Jewish Home, write to info@jewishhomefamily.org