A local business has rallied its customers in an effort to aid health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thimbles and Things, located on Brodie Drive in Severn Township, just outside of Orillia, is closed to the public during the pandemic, but staff and customers are keeping up with their sewing skills by creating masks, which are being offered free of charge to health-care workers who need them.
Thimbles and Things owner Sue Polera put a call out through her company’s newsletter, and customers have answered. Up to 200 of them are making the masks and dropping them off at the business. Polera has been receiving about 100 masks every day.
“It’s wonderful to see,” she said. “We’ve got quilters that love to sew and this is a great project to get behind.”
It’s an ideal endeavour because “it doesn’t require a whole lot of time or fabric,” Polera said.
One of her customers died after contracting COVID-19, she noted, “so it really brings it home.”
The masks vary in terms of pattern, and some have elastic straps to go over the ears while others have ties. They have two layers of fabric, and some have an additional layer.
“They’re not N95 masks,” Polera said, referring to the surgical masks being used by many front-line health-care staff, “but hopefully it helps people even if it just stops them from touching their faces.”
The masks are available to “nursing/retirement homes or anyone in the health-care field who needs them,” she said.
Anyone interested in acquiring masks can call Thimbles and Things at 705-326-9357.
Polera has created a mask-making tutorial that can be found on her website.
