More and more people are wearing masks when they go to the store or other appointments, perhaps in part to the recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendation. In Hood River and The Dalles, locals are working to help provide those masks to both community members and healthcare providers.
Footwise Manager Andrea Nagreen has been making masks since mid-March. She got the idea from an aunt who had posted to Facebook.
“My cousin is a surgeon at OHSU, so she’s been concerned for her,” Nagreen said. Additionally, her sister is an administrator of an assisted living memory care facility and, while the facility has some masks, they are in dire need of more because many procedures require the use of a mask, virus-related or otherwise.
While she doesn’t consider herself to be a seamstress, she does have a sewing machine at home, and, after looking at a pattern provided by her aunt and watching YouTube videos, Nagreen was on her way. She’s been sending masks to her sister and has been giving them out, free of charge, to community members who request one.
The goal: To keep the virus from spreading.
“The thing that keeps me at home is not fear for myself, but fear that if I go about my daily life, I could pick it up anywhere and not know that I have it, and then spread it to others,” she said. “I’m doing my very best to stay isolated, and sewing these masks so when I do have to go to Safeway or something like that, I can wear it and make sure I’m not breathing or coughing into the air or onto other people.”
She’s had requests from strangers via her Facebook page who learned she was making the masks, and she’s started making them for men, women and children.
“I have 20 more to send to my sister — that will complete her request — and then we’ll see if there’s another facility who needs them,” Nagreen said. “They’re not medical masks by any means, just a double layer of cotton. It doesn’t replace anything high tech, it’s just for basic personal protection.”
While her supplies are limited — although Keen is sending her elastic bungees so she can continue making the masks, she said — she’s willing to make as many as she can.
She’s also grocery shopping for other people, again in an effort to flatten the curve. Shopping for others means fewer people in the store, which means fewer people spreading germs, she said.
“We’re all in this together,” she said.
In The Dalles, the Mid-Columbia Senior Center quilting group had just distributed its 502nd mask on Monday. Quilting group members are making the masks, and donations of masks have also come in from community members.
The masks are going to those who work in public or are caregivers, such as local facilities, as well as to businesses like Dairy Queen, Grocery Outlet and the Dollar Store for employees to wear.
“The service workers need as much protection as they can get,” said quilting group and senior center board member Diana Thomas.
“We started out making masks to prevent people from getting sick and overwhelming the hospital,” said Thomas. “It seemed to make the most sense to prevent it from getting to MCMC (Mid-Columbia Medical Center).”
There’s a drop box at the senior center where masks can be donated. Whether from the box or from quilting group members, all masks are washed in hot water with scent-free detergent, dried, pressed and packaged “so people can look without having to handle all of them,” Thomas explained. “It’s a process.”
The group has plenty of material to continue making masks, but they would appreciate donations of quarter-inch elastic or iron-on interface. And finished masks are also appreciated.
“Requests have not stopped coming in,” she said. “... We appreciate the individual seamstresses who are making masks.”
Thomas said she hopes to see more people in The Dalles wearing masks.
“I encourage people to wear these, especially in the grocery store,” she said. “I’m not seeing a lot of people wearing them.
“It’s not a foolproof system, but it will help keep some of the droplets from spreading to people.”
Online shopping
Footwise closed to the public on March 16, but Manager Andrea Nagreen said that orders can still be placed. Photos of new shoe deliveries can be found on the Footwise Facebook page, and she said she is happy to ship orders or do local deliveries.
PPE donations
Donated masks, gowns and other Personal Protection Equipment are accepted Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-2 p.m. outside the Hood River County administration builidng, Sixth and State; items are distributed throughout the Gorge.
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