School of Pharmacy's assistant dean for communications and marketing shares story about making face masks with her daughter.
Editor's Note: This post is the first in a series of Helping Hands stories authored by School of Pharmacy faculty, staff, students, trainees, and alumni who stepped up to assist their family and friends, colleagues, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
My 13-year-old daughter, Maddie, and I decided last week to make face masks for health care workers after hearing about the School of Nursing’s campaign to provide masks to the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC).
Maddie has a sewing machine and some skill. I have no sewing skills but knew this was a much-needed distraction for both of us and a way we can help while stuck at home.
We downloaded a pattern, gathered supplies, found a tutorial on YouTube, dusted off her sewing machine, and got started. It took many arguments and do-overs and much longer than it should to make the first one (like several hours) and many FaceTime calls with my mother. She is a master seamstress and is making masks for health care workers in West Virginia where she lives. On day two, we were able to complete about 10 masks before running out of supplies. We plan to give them to two health care workers we know — one who works in an urgent care center and the other who works in the emergency room at UMMC — for their personal use and/or to share with their colleagues.
We plan to hunt down more supplies and to keep sewing!