Masking a Difference in a Small Way

Week 1 of quarantine for the global pandemic of COVID-19, my 2 older sisters (Molly Wheeler and Elle Enos) and I wanted to do something to help protect those who were most vulnerable and serving on the front lines. We went out, bought sewing machines and fabric, and started on our journey of making and donating masks. We partnered with our local county who saw there was a need for masks in our community, and they donated fabric to those willing to help. We would go through the donated fabric extremely fast so we ended up continuing to buy our own fabric as we went.

I started to post on social media that we were donating masks to healthcare professionals and if anyone needed a mask they could reach out to me directly. I ended up getting a lot of responses from people needing masks, so we started to ship them out. I then started to think about my home away from home, Auburn, and that I wanted to make an impact there as well because they hold such a special place in my heart. I reached out to OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) in Auburn when I found out they were collecting mask donations. I ended up sending them 50 masks we had made and they sent me back 50 pre-cut kits to work on and send back. Since we started this journey we have made and donated over 1,500 masks to those in need and we don't plan on stopping now.