‘We can do this.’ Former Kentucky player’s family prepares for life amid COVID-19.
For former Kentucky basketball player Chuck Verderber, the coronavirus pandemic hit home on March 15. That was the last day dental offices in Vermont could operate before having to close by order of the governor.
Verderber surmised that when the dental practice he shared with his wife, Lynda Ulrich, reopened, the husband-and-wife dentists would need to wear Personal Protective Equipment. But the question became: where to get the necessary PPE? He searched the Internet, but could not find the surgical gowns he believed necessary to provide safe dental care.
“Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes,” Verderber said this week. “You’ve got to do what you can do to make things happen. And we just said, we can do this.”
Verderber, who played for UK from 1978-79 through 1981-82, meant that literally.
Maybe the family could make surgical gowns. Eldest daughter Liesl is a seamstress. Lynda made clothes for the children when they were young. One of the dental patients also happened to be a seamstress.
“Let’s see if we can make the gowns,” Verderber said.
One of his first moves was to seek gown material at the Joann Fabric and Craft Store where the family lives in Saint Albans, Vt. The store had the poly cotton blend he was looking for.
“I’ve kind of become a rock star at Joann’s because I needed all this material,” Verderber said. “We’re best buddies at Joann’s.”
When it came to deciding the color of the gowns, Verderber and Ulrich were ecumenical.
“I’d have loved to have one color, but I took every color they had,” he said.
Kentucky blue was a must.
There’s also red to represent Harvard’s Crimson, Liesl’s alma mater.
Clarkson University’s school color of green is included. Younger daughter, Louisa, graduated from the private school in upstate New York this spring.
Verderber and Ulrich set up something of an assembly line on the ping pong table in their basement. Eight people worked on the gowns. Besides the dentists, others were their two daughters and a son, Jens. Two boyfriends and a girlfriend also contributed.
The crew made 90 gowns in the first 10 days or so. Verderber said he hoped the governor will allow dental offices to reopen as soon as next week.
When the family let the world know about its project on Facebook on Sunday, the posting drew more than 300 “likes” the first day.
“People are looking for signs of ingeniousness and hope,” Ulrich said. “When they see how somebody figured out (how to solve a problem, in this case having PPE), that’s a sign that things can carry on. When people see you don’t have surgical gowns, so you make them, that sort of thing restores our faith in each other.”
The making of PPE fits a pattern. Verderber and his wife created a website called “Ever Widening Circles” last year. A poem written in 1905 by Rainer Maria Rilke and titled “I live my life in widening circles” inspired the website. They post stories in hopes of inspiring or uplifting people.
“We always say: Want a better world? Now, there’s an app for that,” Ulrich said. “That’s our motto.”
The family again flashed their can-do spirit and gift for improvisation last weekend. Younger daughter Louisa and her boyfriend, Paul Barber, were supposed to be part of Clarkson University’s graduation on Saturday. Each would receive a degree in engineering.
But the school canceled the graduation ceremony because of the coronavirus.
So, the family held a graduation ceremony in the living room. PPE intended to be part of the supply for the dental practice was converted into graduation gowns. Louisa and Paul wore green, of course.
“I know you’re supposed to wear black,” Verderber said of the gowns he and Ulrich wore. “We had to get in the Kentucky blue.”
Jens’ girlfriend, Nicolina Czekaj, played piano. The parents of Barber and Ulrich attended virtually via Zoom. Verderber and Ulrich gave the customary follow-your-dreams remarks. At the end, caps were thrown into the air.
Of the Facebook postings about the making of surgical gowns and the in-home graduation ceremony, Verderber said, “We believe that goodness can be viral, too. By being positive, amazing things can happen. You just have to keep focused on that. It’s not wearing rose-colored glasses. It’s just a perspective.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 11:04 AM.
