The COVID-19 updates and the sudden lack of basic supplies like facemasks for our healthcare professionals had my anxiety at an all-time high. I didn’t know what to do, but I’m not a nurse or a doctor. Then this video landed in my Facebook feed:
Now, I’m not the best sewer but I can make that mask! I quickly realized I didn’t have enough fabric to make more than a few and the idea hit me that there are probably plenty of people who have the skills but not the resources.
Getting supplies to make masks
Immediately I thought of LaKesha and her ability to get people moving into action. She agreed to redirect this year’s Kirby Project Fundraiser towards purchasing the needed supplies. She then asked if I had people to send the supplies too. Oops! I hadn’t even tried to find the sewers yet.
I put a quick call out on Facebook to friends asking to connect me with people in the area who might be interested in joining us.
I thought I would find maybe ten people to join me on this crazy adventure. Today we have over 600 people who are sewing masks, ironing and cutting fabric, donating supplies, picking up masks so those sewing don’t have to stop, and delivering to healthcare workers who are busy saving all of us.
If you would like to help us provide much-needed supplies to our volunteers you can do so through the Kirby Project Fundraiser or by Donating Supplies directly to the group. We are currently in short supply of t-shirt yarn and elastic.
Volunteers needed
To join this movement you don’t have to sew. There are sew, see what I did there, many people joining in who have never picked up a needle and thread. We need drivers, marketers, managers, and more.
Here are just a few of the amazing helpers who have joined us so far:
- 100+ people sewing from the safety of their homes
- 50+ people have volunteered to pick up and deliver masks where needed
- a writer donating her time to interview our volunteers and post their stories at Hope for Tampa | News
- Academy of the Holy Names - organizing their students, parents, staff and alumni to sew, participating in deliveries, organizing a t-shirt drive and providing sewing machines to those who need them
- The Storyteller Alliance - writing press releases and spreading the word
- Good - Intents - performing website audit
- Babycyle - helping with networking and deliveries
- ARK of Tampa - helping organize the backend and teach the leadership team how to effectively work and run a CRM
- ElliMoon and Potthast Design - joined our leadership team as part of the expert sewing team that designs tutorials and patterns for masks based on the feedback of ER doctors they are working directly with. We also have the honor of having an Eckerd professor on this team who is creating Facebook Live instructional videos
- The Kirby Project - organizing an “EGG” my house fundraiser to get the needed supplies into the hands of our volunteers
What I get out of it
Everyone, including me, is 100% volunteering. Masks are not for sale and ads are not being placed on the website. This is strictly to get the needed masks to those who need them.
But I do get something big out of all this. Remember that anxiety I mentioned in the first paragraph. No? You forgot. Well, guess what. So did I!
An ICU nurse recently reminded me that caregiving isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. We need to take care of ourselves, and for me that involves volunteering. It feeds my soul.
Join Hope for Tampa Bay
from the coast, north to Lutz, east to Lakeland, and all the way down to Ruskin
Want to join us? Whatever your talent there is a place for you. Take a look at Hope for Tampa to discover how to get involved.
#SeeTheGood #BeTheGood #MillionMaskChallenge #HopeforTampa
