Volunteers provide Cape Girardeau health care workers with homemade medical face masks

At Betty Carroll’s front door, you’ll find a welcome mat, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a note instructing visitors to use the disinfectant before entering. The home in Cape Girardeau has been transformed into a makeshift assembly line producing face masks for hospital staff at Saint Francis Medical Center.

Betty Carroll cuts fabric while working with a group of volunteers to produce homemade medical face masks Monday in Cape Girardeau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

In addition to empty grocery store shelves, COVID-19 has created a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), including medical face masks and respirators, an issue facing hospitals and health care facilities all over the country.

At Carroll’s home Monday, there were six volunteers working in separate rooms of the home to make face masks from fabric, carefully stitched with pleats that allow the fabric to stretch to fit each person’s face. They’re not respirator masks, which have filters built in to protect the wearer from airborne contaminants, but they will offer a level of protection, according to Saint Francis volunteer coordinator Teresa Lukefahr.

Barbara Limbaugh stands at an ironing board while volunteering with a team of face mask makers Monday in Cape Girardeau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

“We’re just doing the fabric right now,” she explained. “We wanted to be able to give every colleague a mask just for some type of protection, so we produced as fast as we could with what we have.”

Moving through her home Monday, you’d find Carroll cutting fabric, Barbara Limbaugh ironing the fabric, Judi Owens and Judy Heisserer sewing, Mona Nenninger adding pleats and Carol Bruce cutting mask strings.

The women are all volunteers for the hospital and since March 12, they’ve spent roughly 10 hours each day making the masks for SFMC employees, Lukefahr said. In that time, she noted they’ve made well over 1,000 masks, and more recently, the volunteers have been producing anywhere from 200 to 350 masks each day.

Judi Owens sits at a sewing machine while working with a group of volunteers Monday in Cape Girardeau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

“The volunteers stepped in, [and] they were eager to help,” Lukefahr said, noting her pride in the volunteers who she said jumped on the opportunity to help the moment they were asked.

“They are so caring about Saint Francis and the community,” she wrote in a Monday afternoon email to the Southeast Missourian.

Saint Francis shared the mask pattern on its website, which can be found at www.sfmc.net/covid19/mask-pattern for those interested in volunteering their resources or simply making their own. Those interested in volunteering to make masks can contact Lukefahr by phone at (573) 331-5166 or by email at tlukefahr@sfmc.net.

Tailor made

The volunteers at Carroll’s home are just one group of several local residents making masks.

Daniel Glasco, tailor and owner of The Sewing Room in Cape Girardeau, has found himself with more free time lately, as COVID-19 has interrupted business.

Judy Heisserer sews while working with a group of volunteers Monday in Cape Girardeau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

“Because of [COVID-19], people are just not getting out, they’re not buying new clothes,” Glasco said. “If they don’t buy them new, they probably don’t need them altered.”

But the decline in business has given him an opportunity to “step up” as a volunteer.

In an effort to replenish PPE for local health care workers and folks in need, Glasco has spent about eight hours or more each day producing medical masks. He’s asked the community for financial support through a GoFundMe page, noting they cost about $1.05 each to make.

His personal goal is to produce between 75 and 100 masks each day.

Mona Nenninger puts pleats into homemade face masks while working with a group of volunteers Monday in Cape Girareau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

Glasco is partnering with Cape First Church, of which he is a member, to help distribute the masks and collect donations.

“Cape First is looking for ways to serve the community in this time,” explained Cape First communications director David Urzi. “We know it can be a scary time, [and] people are looking for hope, people are looking for something that they can rely on. People are a little uneasy right now, and we’re just trying to serve the community in tangible ways.”

At the church, 254 S. Silver Springs Road, folks can also pick up kits containing materials to make 20 masks at a time on their at-home machines, Urzi said.

Carol Bruce cuts strings to be used for homemade medical face masks Monday in Cape Girardeau.Photo submitted by Teresa Lukefahr

“They can let us know and then we can go back by and pick them up,” Glasco explained of the kits, “for any home sewers who need a little project.”

Eventually, Glasco said he will run out of materials, and donations are welcome. At this time, the most urgent material need is for elastics, he said.

To arrange a time to pick up masks or kits, as well as to make donations of materials or funds, call ahead to the church office at (573) 334-4421. For more information or to donate online, visit www.capefirst.org/give.