These days, it seems like the whole world is fluctuating between obsessing about toilet paper and trying to find ways to help neighbors and friends. While mom and I are doing little things for others — ordering meals and groceries from local businesses, dropping off groceries and supplies for neighbors and friends, etc. — it seems like these efforts are just scratching the surface.

Enter the mask prototype project.

It started with a text from my next door neighbor, Joan, who is a QA manager for the local hospice organization and leads their disaster response efforts. Her team of nurses, aides, social workers and administrators were running critically low on masks.

While they didn’t need a large supply of the coveted N95 masks, the ones they did use on a regular basis for standard basic care were unavailable and their supply was depleting very quickly. And since hospice is rated at the lowest priority level right now, they were desperate for help.

“Do you think  your quilting group would be willing to make masks for us?” Joan asked.

I put out the call to my guild’s president, Dagmar, and my friend Michele who is a member of another local guild. Within 24 hours I had 35 masks, and another 20 the next day. And as I write this post on Sunday afternoon, we have collected more than 120 masks in less than five days.

Quilters rock.

Let me be clear, these masks are not intended for personnel treating coronavirus. But there are many, many people in medical, dental and veterinary practices who can use them. So it was great to be able to rally the troops to help my neighbor and her hospice patients.

The next call came Wednesday afternoon from Leslie, who owns the local quilt shop.

She is a friend of a young man, an engineer, whose wife works in the pulmonary department of one of the local hospitals. Andy is part of an online “hack” group who is trying to come up with alternatives for N95 masks and needed someone to construct prototypes for him.

I contacted Andy and he was thrilled to have a helper to assist him. The next day I met him in a parking lot and he handed me his materials to work with: about 2 dozen woven reuseable grocery bags, 7″ long pieces of coated electrical wire (to form the nose pieces), and an instruction sheet.

I started out by making four prototypes and documenting how I took apart the bags, pieced side pieces, experimented with different sized sewing needles, thread type, etc.

Unfortunately, they won’t work since I added an “X” line of stitching to hold the three slippery layers together.

I asked Andy if the layers needed to be free-floating, so to speak, and he posted that on his hackers bulletin board.

The answer made me go, “DOH!” Don’t add the stitching across the front; it introduces holes into the fabric which means more particles can come in.

So back to the drawing board. Mom and I have been disassembling grocery bags for two days and I have finally found the fastest and most effective way to do so. Once all the bags are disassembled, and the pieces cut, we’ll begin the assembly line and start putting the masks together.

I don’t know if these masks will amount to anything, but at minimum, it feels good to help out some smart people trying to make a difference.

And who knows? If these things actually work, and can be assembled in mass, Mom and I will have been part of the next big breakthrough in treating COVID-19. Not bad for a couple of gray haired old ladies from Simpsonville, SC, huh?

So that’s what we are up to these days. Staying healthy. Staying sane. Socially distancing.

Hope you can say the same.

With love and hopes for continued health for all,

Susan