Fordham Prep Donates Safety Goggles, Gloves, & Gowns to Bronx Hospital

BY ISN STAFF | March 27, 2020

As New York City’s healthcare system struggles to keep up with the growing COVID-19 crisis, Fordham Preparatory School has donated all of the safety goggles from the school’s science laboratories to St. Barnabas Hospital. Also included in the donation were lab gowns and several boxes of examination gloves.

Fordham Prep is a Catholic and Jesuit all-male college preparatory school in the Bronx.  Located on the historic Rose Hill campus, the school is less than a mile away from St. Barnabas, a 422-bed, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, acute care community hospital. 

After speaking to Dr. Ernest Patti, Senior Attending Physician of Emergency Medicine at St. Barnabas and father of a Prep senior, Fordham Prep President Rev. Christopher Devron, S.J., learned of the extraordinary surge of patients at St. Barnabas and the increased demand for personal protective equipment.

Fr. Devron and faculty from the Prep’s science department knew they could respond quickly. With the campus closed, science labs dormant,  and students currently engaged in distance learning, their decision to donate critically needed equipment was an easy one.

Fr. Devron said, “Jesuit education is committed to service and advancing the common good. I am so pleased that our resources can assist, in some small way, in protecting our heroic healthcare workers who are on the front lines of care during this unprecedented crisis.  In the spirit of Jesuit education, they teach all of us what it means to become men and women for others.”

On behalf of his colleagues at St. Barnabas, Dr. Patti expressed gratitude for the donation of 100 safety goggles and other personal protective equipment which he will bring to the hospital on Sunday morning.

Fr. Devron urged all schools, colleges, and universities across the city, state, and nation to take stock of their inventory and give as generously as possible to local hospitals as they provide life-saving care and work to keep our communities safe.

For more on the response to COVID-19 from the Ignatian network, visit ISN’s coronavirus resource page.