( NOTE/UPDATE: READ ABOUT THE RESULTS OF THE “5 DAY/500 MASK” CHALLENGE HERE>> )
Pete Shepherd is asking for your help.
Pete is a retired attorney. Weekly he donates his time to serve as a volunteer judge in courtrooms in neighboring counties. Sewing is not a hobby for him. He's going to sew this week, however, because he believes it's a necessity. Pete feels strongly that he needs to help our medical professionals have one more barrier against COVID-19. Pete is asking for your help.
First, it's important to note that do-it-yourself masks made from home will not replace the heavy-duty, N95 surgical masks. Secondly, the all-cotton masks created by Pete and his team will be given to medical providers in clinics and hospitals. They won't be made for patients or as preventive measures for the general public.
Pete's appeal to the people of Sisters Country joins other requests for action across our nation. Quincy, Ill. healthcare officials have asked their sewing community for help. A hospital foundation in San Jose, Calif. is providing the patterns for hand sewn masks. A Facebook page, "Make-a-Mask" in Austin, Texas provides guidelines for mask-making for medical professionals.
HERE'S PETE'S REQUEST OF OUR COMMUNITY:
5 Days/500 Masks. That’s the goal, and one day in, it is still in reach of volunteers in Sisters Country.
The Center for Disease Control is helping health care professionals prepare for the possibility they won’t have enough approved face masks to make their workplaces safer. The new CDC guidelines allow health care providers to use their professional judgement as circumstances dictate.
Many grassroots efforts are already publishing patterns or instructions for making masks. If you have already found one that suits you, good on you! Better yet, do that, AND this!
The 5 Day/500 Mask challenge takes all the uncertainty, skill and guesswork out of creating a mask that health care providers can use to make their workplaces safer. We’re calling these “Sisters Country Last Line Of Defense” masks. They are the Model T of masks. They’re not pretty or tidy. But they will be useful in the hands of health care providers.
IF YOU CAN SEW, YOU CAN HELP. HERE’S HOW:
• TODAY (TUESDAY, MARCH 24) AND TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25): HELP WITH STRAPS. WASH AND DRY A COTTON SHEET. TEAR OR CUT IT INTO 1” STRIPS. FOLD THE STRIPS IN HALF LENGTHWISE AND SEW THE LONG LOOSE EDGES TOGETHER. YOU’LL HAVE MANY LONG STRIPS. CUT EACH LONG STRIP INTO 16” LENGTHS. FINISH THE CUT ENDS.
Don't worry about any loose threads: Remember, we're making a Model T, not a Cadillac.
• DELIVER ALL OF YOUR FINISHED PRODUCT TO THE DROP BOX AT 464 EAST WAPATO LOOP BEFORE 5 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY.
A local business—Your Store of Sisters—has donated all the other raw materials needed. Other volunteers are making the additional pieces for the masks.
• THURSDAY BETWEEN 9 A.M. AND 12 NOON: PICK UP ONE OR MORE KITS OF MASK PARTS. EACH “MASK KIT” INCLUDES ALL PARTS FOR FIVE MASKS, TOGETHER WITH SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS. THE KITS WILL BE AVAILABLE CURBSIDE AT 464 EAST WAPATO LOOP. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SEW THE MASKS.
• FRIDAY BEFORE 12 NOON: RETURN ALL OF YOUR COMPLETED MASKS TO THE DROP BOX AT 464 EAST WAPATO LOOP. (PLEASE ADHERE TO CURRENT PRECAUTIONS WITH REGARD TO SOCIAL DISTANCING, HYGIENE AND TRAVEL, ETC.)
We’ll deliver all of the completed product to local health care providers for their use.
>> For more details, you can contact Pete Shepherd by email at: pete.sisters@gmail.com
AN UPDATE FROM PETE SHEPHERD:
(6 p.m. Wednesday, March 25)
Greetings, Friends.
Thank you again for your willingness to take on this daunting challenge. We now have over 41 people volunteering in one way or another to try to do something with our own hands to help the health care providers working so hard on our behalf.
The “mask kits” (described above) my wife and I are assembling this evening will be available tomorrow morning for volunteers to pick up from 464 East Wapato Loop, starting at 9 AM.
This is first-come, first-serve. Some volunteers with advanced skills will feel comfortable taking multiple kits. Novices likely will need a slower pace—they may wish to take just one kit. Don't get down if there are no more kits available when you come by—just rejoice that so many of your friends and neighbors have joined you in the effort.
All finished masks need to be returned to the drop box at 464 East Wapato loop by noon on Friday.
ALSO, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE:
Late this afternoon St. Charles published its own specifications for homemade masks. This week’s challenge is demonstrating that a community-based assembly line approach to sewing masks can produce relatively large numbers of masks in a few days.
St. Charles specifications are different from the design that we’re producing this week, so we will be directing our 5 Day/500 Mask challenge masks to other area medical providers who are in need.
We are considering how to adapt our “assembly line” model for producing masks to the specifications that St. Charles has just published. But please don’t wait for an invitation! As soon as you’re done working on the 5 Day/500 Mask challenge, you can start making masks per the St. Charles design.
Carlos Salcedo, Manager of Community Partnerships for St. Charles, has encouraged us to circulate the newly approved mask design “How-To” sheet in the community. (CLICK ON THE IMAGE HERE TO ENLARGE.)