In the news this week there are signs our hard work is paying off. Curves have been flattened and lives have been saved, an outstanding result we can all take pride in. The coronavirus battle, however, is far from won, a fact driven home by this campaign for donations of new and used goggles to be repurposed as personal protective equipment for healthcare workers on the frontlines.

Because as it turns out, our moto goggles are the next best thing when standard-issue PPE eye shields are in such short supply during this pandemic.

Borne in the heat of the coronavirus battle, Goggles for Docs is an organization that connects individual hospitals with donors. Say you’ve got a pair of goggles you’d like to contribute, you just go to the website and pick a hospital that’s currently asking for donations. For example, today there are 107 hospitals with a need for between 1 and 100 pairs of goggles – thousands of contributions in total, reminding us that despite slowing numbers of new coronavirus-related hospitalizations there is still a dire need for protective equipment.  

Once you’ve selected the hospital you’d like to support, you disinfect the goggles using common household cleaners (an easy task explained in a video tutorial) and either send them off yourself or bring them to a specified drop-off location. 

Clear lenses are best, but hospitals are accepting tinted lenses as well, stating on the website that “dark lenses are better than a COVID cough in the face.” 

In addition to MX- and ADV-style goggles, you can donate your eye kit from snow sports and mountain biking activities. Heck, some hospitals state they will even accept jockey goggles. 

In the past weeks Goggles for Docs has delivered 35,861 sets of goggles to U.S. hospitals, yet as of today there is urgent need for an additional 4,900 donations.

Manufacturers 100%, Fox Racing, Smith Optics and Bell + Giro have made major donations, leaving us with warm-fuzzy feelings about those brands. In fact, if you’re itching to donate an old pair of goggles and buy a new pair right away, Fox Racing will match your purchase by sending a new pair to the cause, thereby doubling your contribution. 

During this pandemic and the social distancing required to flatten the curve we’ve all played a part in saving lives. Now, thanks to Goggles for Docs, we have a chance to reach out personally and provided much-needed protection for our heroic healthcare workers. 

For more information go to gogglesfordocs.com

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.