Milliken donates 23,000 gowns to Upstate schools

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Milliken & Co. teamed up with local schools to provide reusable fabric gowns to teachers and faculty. These gowns, donated as part of the company’s initiative to support the communities where its associates live and work, will outfit teachers with a reusable gown to help alleviate health concerns and financial burdens of educating students in person, according to a news release.

As part of the company’s manufacturing pivot to meet the demands of the ongoing pandemic, Milliken now manufactures and retails reusable Level 1 PPE gowns made with Perimeter medical fabric typically used in health care settings.

“As our communities prepared to transition back to in-person learning, we recognized the immediate need for PPE to support a safe environment for our children and their teachers,” Chad McAllister, president of Milliken’s Textile Division, said in the release. “We wanted to donate our products to make a difference.”

Milliken is donating 23,040 gowns to 15 school districts in the Upstate: Cherokee County School District, Union County Schools, Spartanburg County School Districts One through Seven, Greenville County Schools and Anderson School Districts One through Five. Each district will distribute gowns to faculty and staff for general protective use within their facilities.

“Community and business partnerships have always been the cornerstones of school district success, more so now than ever before,” Ronald W. Garner, Spartanburg District One superintendent and chairman of Spartanburg County Superintendents, said in the release. “Milliken and Co. is an important partner to Spartanburg County schools, and we are thankful for their generous donation of PPE that shows their investment in the health of our school communities."

Milliken’s Level 1 PPE gowns, domestically sourced and produced, extend the life of a traditional disposable gown from single-use to a reusable garment, the release said. Able to be laundered 25 or more times, the gowns offer protection for a smaller economic investment — substantially extending PPE inventory lifetimes.

Milliken is a diversified international manufacturer headquartered in Spartanburg.