Thousands across the country, including several in Johnson County, are taking up their needles and using their time in self-isolation to create handmade face masks for first responders and medical personnel who are fighting COVID-19.
Local hospitals are low on supplies, and officials are asking the community to give back in any way they can, whether that be dropping off boxes of masks, gloves and gowns, or fetching their stowed away sewing boxes and creating the protective gear themselves.
Pat Townsend, a retired elementary school teacher of Greenwood, is just one woman who stepped up to fill the need for masks locally.
A friend sent Townsend information on the need for masks. The avid sewer thought to herself, “I could do that,” she said.
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Townsend went to work, using her personal stock-pile of fabric, some elastic she ordered online and a simple pattern shared by Deaconess Hospital in Evansville.
Just how big the need for masks is became apparent when Townsend posted in the “Johnson County, In Public Safety Information” Facebook group that she was making them, she said. In no time, order after order rolled in.
Townsend initially planned to spend her time in isolation to sew her grandson a new quilt, but instead took up the mask project to fill a more immediate need, she said.
“It is mind-boggling,” Townsend said. “It is hard to believe that this kind of (shortage) could happen; that women would have to jump in and do this. But that is what we do.”
As of Sunday, Townsend had personally made 123 masks, including several batches for local firefighters, paramedics, nurses at nearby hospitals and individuals who contacted her about making masks for their loved ones, she said.
Sharing the love with people who help her and her husband get by in self-isolation, Townsend made extra masks to keep her grocery delivery driver and mail carrier safe on the job, she said.
Townsend is just one of thousands who have taken to Facebook to organize efforts and distribute handmade masks. One such group is “Sewing Masks and Making PPE for Central Indiana Healthcare Workers,” which is run by women in the Indianapolis-area.
Denise Olsen Estelle, a local kindergarten teacher who lives in Irvington, is a moderator of the group and the wife of a registered nurse with first-hand knowledge of the mask shortage. Estelle joined the group to help after her husband told her about the need, she said.
“I was worried. I wanted to make sure that he was healthy and everyone else is healthy,” Estelle said.
Estelle has sewn some masks herself, but her primary responsibility with the groups is picking up materials and delivering them to makers and health care facilities.
The 243-member and growing “Sewing Masks” group invites women of all talents to join, Estelle said. Not just women who can sew, but also those who have extra supplies, can cut out patterns or deliver, she said.
“It is really neat to see people who are pitching in and sharing things that have been in their sewing kits for years,” Estelle said.
For Townsend, watching how many people have come together to rally around those fighting COVID-19 on the front lines has been heartwarming, she said.
“It is a great community effort. It is not just one person,” Townsend said. “It kind of warms your heart to see all of these people helping any way they can.”
Since the masks are relatively simple to make, most who can complete a basic sewing project would be able to make a mask, Townsend said.
The pattern she used from Deaconess is simple — it even included a how-to video. For more on the pattern, visit deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask.
