When the Verde Valley began shut- ting down due to fears of the corona- virus pandemic, Chris Canning, an elderly woman in Cottonwood, found herself forced to stay inside. She reached out to two of her close friends from church, Leah Wilcock and Allie Weathersby.
The prayer group got in contact with some friends who work at the hospital and learned of the worrying dearth of protective equipment for medical staff. Canning, who has been sewing since age 10, saw an opportunity. She, Wilcock and Weathersby began sewing protective masks for staff, and for the rest of the community.
“We’re a prayer group,” Canning said. “We were saying, ‘OK, Lord, how can we help? What can we do?’ My first thought was to maybe feed people or teach Sunday school or something, but this is the thing that actually came up. It’s made my kids much happier. They want me to stay in.”
Though doctors and nurses must use higher-quality regulation protective equipment for dealing directly with COVID-19 patients, they still benefit from some of these homemade fabric masks when not dealing directly with highly infectious patients. This helps to prevent the spread of the disease as much as possible. Individuals not involved directly in medical work can also benefit from the homemade masks when out in public grocery shopping or doing other essential tasks.
After the ladies got started sewing masks, they were pleasantly surprised to find others from the community who wanted to join them in their project. Their pastor at the Cottonwood C3 Church, Frank Navarez, sent out email blasts to other local parishioners asking for help. Local businesses have also donated fabric and money to purchase more supplies. A post by Weathersby on a social media app received almost 100 responses.
Canning’s sewing group now has volunteers joining in from every community in the Verde Valley, from Camp Verde up to Sedona.
“We have a good pattern and have started making them,” Weathersby wrote. “But the need is large and quick. Cotton material, 1/4 inch elastic, prep workers, material cutters and seamstresses are needed. Can anyone help?”
The ladies have used a simple mask template they found online at so-sew-easy.com, and have sent it out to their volunteers. For those that do not know how to sew, they say cutting pieces of fabric into the sizes and shapes necessary for creating masks is a necessary task that allows the process to move along.
In addition to finding volunteers, the group has been pleased to see that some fellow seamstresses have given stashes of fabric that they had saved for a special occasion, leading to many of the masks having interesting designs on them.
“A lady I talked to today said, ‘I have been waiting for something to do,’” Weathersby recalled. “‘We want to help. Please let me help.’”
The hospital has said that they are hoping for not only a thousand masks, but also a thousand gowns that can be used by patients. When Canning’s group spoke to the Cottonwood Journal Extra on Thursday, March 26, they had finished what they estimated to be around 65 masks, but they hoped that with their new army of volunteers, they could quickly meet the hospital’s demand.
On Saturday, Navarez traveled down to Phoenix to pick up large quantities of fabric for the project. He filled his car as much as he could, but expects that he will return some time in the next few days to get more.
“Looking at the community, and those that we reached out to help out, and without hesitation said yes, and the finances that started flowing in for us to do whatever we can — I thought that was just great,” Navarez said. “I’m really impressed by the community for doing that.”
In addition to the fabric donations, the sewing group received a donation of a voice to email phone system, and encourage anyone interested in helping to call it at (480)482- 5429 to get in touch with the group.
“We’re happy to do this,” Canning said. “We’ve been together here working for three or four days now. We just cook a pot of soup or today had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and just stay here and do our thing. When we need something, we call my kids and they go get it.”
“I can’t imagine sitting in front of the TV all day long, and listening news and being depressed,” Canning said. “Plus we have God. We’re not afraid.”
