Montgomery County woman shifts her business to making masks for healthcare workers
UPPER MORELAND TOWNSHIP, Pa. - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation for everyone to cover their face while out in public comes as the need for surgical and N95 masks for healthcare workers continues to grow.
A group in Upper Moreland Township banded together to respond, from people between the ages of 13-92-years-old.
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Beth Ann Cowden is known for her interior design company and like so many business owners, that’s on hold because of coronavirus. So, she has taken on a new project for those on the front lines.
“I can’t imagine being in that line of work. I can’t imagine sending my daughter out to do a job like that,” Beth Ann stated.
It started with an idea to buy material and the help of her friend Sungi to sew masks.
“I put a Facebook post out there telling everyone what we were doing and it exploded,” Beth Ann added.
Exploded into approximately 2,000 masks made for local healthcare workers in just a week, Beth Ann said, with people across Upper Moreland Township and beyond jumping in to buy, cut and sew the fabric. Among the self-taught mask makers – a 92-year-old woman down to teenagers.
“It was really simple. There’s a tutorial online you can follow. I just wanted to do something to help people,” Abby Engart said.
“It took a while, but then I got used to them,” Peyton Schmer stated.
Fitting the sewing in-between online classes for school.
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“I have a full online schedule. It’s pretty busy, but then after, I try to work on the masks, as well,” Mya Papouschek explained.
The youngest seamstress, just 13-years-old, contributed 200 with the help of her parents.
“It feels good to help,” Taryn Carson remarked.
Beth Ann says so many monetary donations poured in to help, they also started to order take out lunch from local businesses to drop off at hospitals for the healthcare workers.
And with the CDC’s latest call to cover faces when out in public, but save the surgical masks for healthcare workers, they expect the need to only continue.
And, so will they.
“It’s truly a blessing. Like you have to take the positive out of the negative and the positive is really how we are all coming together,” Beth Ann explained.
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