Doing their part; seamstresses, crafters, residents supply homemade masks

Anne Mehringer’s rural Ireland home has been busy with visitors recently.

She’s become somewhat of a central distribution site for cloth masks as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ramp up and health professionals and others are facing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

The masks she’s been creating have been picked up for use at Owensboro, Evansville and local hospitals and medical offices.

Anne estimates she’s made more than 300 masks in the past ten days or so.

She and crafters in Dubois County have answered a call that went out for masks to be sewn and then distributed through national craft stores and others.

Tuesday, an assembly line of materials were spread across Anne’s kitchen island. Her 92-year-old mother Fern Bonifer cut elastic in seven-inch strips and Cindy Gress, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, pinned together precut pieces of cloth — cotton on front and flannel on back as the CDC has instructed — with the strips of elastic sandwiched between them ready to be sewn.

Similar scenarios exist in homes across the county.

Sue Krampe, who lives near Ferdinand, is busy watching her four grandchildren. The oldest two — Reilly and Andrew — help by counting the masks to be bundled in groups of ten and turned right-side-out after they are sewn.

She reported on Tuesday that she’s made more than 70 so far but when the youngest two grandchildren decide it’s time to climb in her lap, production has to take a pause.

“Anything we can do to help is important,” Sue said adding that her sewing room is chaos right now.

Jane Heichelbech began making masks Monday. The long-time quilter has been sewing and creating home crafts since she was in first grade. Now, the 64-year-old fits in the time to create the masks after working at Old National Bank’s northside location all day.

“If one of these masks will help one person from getting it (COVID-19), then I feel like it’s been worth it,” Jane said.

Many have been dropping them off at Memorial Hospital.

“The outpouring of love and support from the communities we serve has been tremendous and humbling. Our caregivers have been the recipients of meals, sweet treats, and words of kindness and prayer,” said Melanie Powell, Memorial’s director of business development and marketing. “We thank those businesses and individuals who have thought of us and supported us in these challenging times. Please know that your support means the world to us.”

She added that in accordance with the governor’s stay-home directive, community members who have the supplies to make homemade masks at home can deliver them to the hospital for certain patient uses. These can be dropped off at the information desk inside of the main lobby at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center.

Fortunately, many of these crafters have stocks of fabric they’ve saved up over the years. They pick up pieces here and there in anticipation of using them in some future project. This time the project has been forced upon them and that pretty fabric will be adorning patients, healthcare workers, public safety and other people impacted by the pandemic.

The only problem as been finding elastic. “It’s about as hard to find as toilet paper,” Sue joked.

However, another Ireland resident, Debra Wickman, runs a business called Doll Dreams creating dresses and clothing for dolls. She has donated a lot of elastic from her personal supplies to support the effort, according to Anne adding that if anyone wanting to make masks needs supplies, give her a call or contact her on Facebook. She’s willing to teach others how to make them as well.

Deaconess Health Systems has instructions and a video on how to create masks at this link https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask?fbclid=IwAR1H25JhviFlqeBjj-LEwCUCGNf-PbJcst4fHxcnXOThUqoTk6CVQ8cuyRM