Community members making masks as symbol of unity, to help locals in need
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IDAHO FALLS — Many community members are using their sewing talents to bring smiles to faces and peace of mind to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brenda Randall is a registered nurse who works in the pre-op and recovery room at Mountain View Hospital. She also owned Blackbird Haven, a quilt store in Idaho Falls, for about three years.
In her nearly 29 years of being a nurse, she said she’s never seen anything like what the novel coronavirus is bringing to the table. When she read news stories about nurses needing masks, she turned to her side hobby of sewing and began making washable, cloth masks for nurses at Mountain View.
“I knew the sewing and quilting world would step up. … I knew that they would take over helping make masks for these nurses all over the United States,” Randall said. “But to me, it’s not just nurses, these are my friends. … I never wanted one of the women that I work with and love to be without a mask.”
The masks aren’t actually being worn at Mountain View because they aren’t OSHA approved, but instead, they are what Randall calls a “souvenir.” They are something that could be worn outside of work and in the community.
“At Mountain View, we are very blessed and fortunate right now to have the necessary masks that we need,” Randall said. “We are not out of masks yet.”
Randall said many people have asked her if nurses will be able to wear the masks she and others around the nation are making. She said at Mountain View, the answer is no because the hospital has the supplies they need.
She said people at some hospitals in the United States are wearing OSHA approved masks with fabric masks on top. After a health care provider has been in a room with a patient, the outer mask becomes what they call “soiled” or “contaminated.” Instead of throwing away the OSHA mask, she said the health worker will put the cloth masks in a bag to wash and reuse them. The OSHA mask can then remain on the person’s face.
“They are using them,” Randall explained. “They’re just not using them as the only protection.”
Although the masks she’s made aren’t to be worn in Mountain View, Randall said they’re a form of unity.
“I tried to make them out of all the same fabric because I wanted to unify us. It’s a little scary being a nurse right now. It’s not an easy task and emotions are high,” Randall said. “I feel like nursing is a team sport. It’s not an individual competition. We’ve got to unify to get through this together.”
She adds inspiring words onto the masks for her coworkers to glance at and remember they can get through hard times.
“I wanted to remind our brains … that there is hope and we need to have faith, courage and unity. Those are the four words I put on there. I may add strength to a few of them.”
It takes about a half-hour to make one mask, Randall said. She had already made 25 as of Wednesday morning. She has enough of the same fabric to make at least 30 more masks, and she plans to make some for her male coworkers too.
“For me, it also is a way of letting them know that I have their back and they have mine because I know they do,” Randall said. “I am so lucky to work with the people I work with and to have such amazing people in my life. I want them to be protected if it gets to that point.”
Randall is not alone in the mask-making effort. Ranae Johnson, of Idaho Falls, started a Facebook page called “Masks for Idaho Falls Sewing Sisters.” She said they’ve received over 3,000 mask request orders from organizations such as assisted living facilities, home health care services and medical clinics, and the number continues to grow.
They are making kids and adult sized masks that consist of two layers of 100 percent cotton. Some have a pocket between the two pieces of material for a filter, and others do not.
“They’re not as good as medical professional ones, but it’s better than nothing,” Johnson said. “A lot of people say they don’t work, but yes, they do work. It’s better than not having anything on your face. If someone sneezes in your face, you want to have something to protect yourself.”
They have more than 300 people in the group, and Johnson is asking for anyone available to sew or otherwise help out. They also are in need of certain items such as fabric, one-quarter inch or less of elastic, bias tape, interfacing and twist ties.
“We just can’t get these out to people fast enough,” Johnson said.
To get involved with the group and for more information, connect with Johnson on the Facebook page.
If you are interested in making face masks to donate to the community, you can contact Mountain View Marketing Specialist Brian Ziel at bziel@mvhospital.net. Ziel will send you instructions from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and coordinate a time to have you drop off the masks so they can distribute them to people who need them.
“Mountain View Hospital and Idaho Falls Community Hospital are fortunate to have enough supplies to keep our team safe and properly equipped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our teams are incredibly humbled and grateful by the outpouring of community support and offers to sew masks for our team,” a Mountain View news release states. “Right now, our employees do not need cloth masks. However, we have patients and community members who we know could benefit from the extra protection while they are outside our facilities.”
More COVID-19 information can be found here.