Martin County Quiet Heroes: Mask Making Brigade
Jennifer Trent, Palm City, and her daughters, lean out the front window of their dining room, where they have been sewing protective medicals masks.
More help needed as medical mask shortage looms locally
Stuart resident Joan Raines headed out to Walmart to buy her first sewing machine last week.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” she told her friend Rachel Terlizzi. “But I want to do my part. You’ve inspired me to get involved.”
Raines decided to learn to sew after hearing that Terlizzi had started making protective face masks in response to the shortage we face all around the country as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates.
Terlizzi had posted on Facebook about her mask-making endeavor, as had Jennifer Trent, who posted that she and her 12-year-old daughter were starting to sew. For both women, the response from their Facebook friends was immediate, and within a few days a force of caring women around Martin County formed a socially distant team to make the masks, a team formed by some women who do actually know each other personally, along with women who have not yet met.
Not everyone on the team knows how to sew--some people cut the shapes out of the fabric. Others pin and still others cut elastic. It is a team effort, taking place in kitchens and dining rooms around the area, sometimes with entire families joining to help. Former Martin County School Board member Tina McSoley’s family spent an evening together cutting 200 rectangles that then went out into the community for sewing.
“Everyone’s leaving things on the porch. Everyone is sewing away between jobs and kids and everything else that’s going on,” said Trent, who is part owner of NAI Southcoast Commercial Real Estate.
Sewall’s Point resident Maria Dunn, along with her two daughters Gigi, 17, and Gaby, 15, are doing their part.
“She put it up on Facebook and I thought ‘I know how to sew. I can do that.’ So between the three of us we sewed 40. We worked for a couple hours each day, for three to four days, with the three of us working at the same time.” said Maria. “I have an old Singer sewing machine that I’ve had for years and years. My daughters did the cutting and pinning and trimmed the threads and turned them right side out and I did the sewing.”
Jennifer Trent’s daughter has helped and had fun at the same time.
Terlizzi, who is the Director of Community Impact for the United Way of Martin County, has driven all around Stuart and even St. Lucie West, picking up supplies, especially elastic. “I put out a PSA for all my mom friends and they are all digging in their craft cabinets looking for elastic and leaving it out on their porch for me. Until my elastic comes in, I am sort of at a standstill. It’s a real problem.”
“When I first started this, my best friend Alannah Ghazal came running to help when I said this is what I want to do,” said Terlizzi. “We are seeing people from different organizations come together to help. This virus has put a stop in so many places in our community and it’s great to see professionals stepping up to help in so many different ways.”
“We work as a team,” said Ghazal, a realtor with eXp Realty. “Rachel cuts and preps all the elastic and fabric, pins it all together and puts it in a pile for me to sew.”
“We have the specs down so that these masks will fit over the N95 masks,” said Terlizzi. “Ideally, these can be used over the N95 and then washed and reused. But if people have no access to an N95, a mask like this is better than nothing.”
“This grew in an organic way. It’s interesting that Jennifer (Trent) and I are friends on Facebook and it has turned into this collaboration. We started sharing tips and tricks back and forth, like telling the cutters how they can rip the fabric instead of cutting each square, which is much faster. We are definitely messaging back and forth and collaborating.”
Rachel Terlizzi and Alannah Ghazal work together at Terlizzi’s kitchen table.
Other mask-making team members are Amy Freese, Lisa Rizzo, Rita Miller, Lisa Schultz-Mianecki, Anna Mirkovich, Rosie Shepard, Leigh Giunta, Kelley Decowski and Josephine Thiel.
“Also involved is Vicki Shaver, a registered nurse and educator who is helping us get a lot of the masks to the hospital or mailing to hospitals that request throughout the country,” said Trent.
Shaver teaches radiology at Palm Beach State. “I'm sending the masks to doctors, nurses and radiology techs from the Palm Beaches through the Treasure Coast. Some are going as far as Los Angeles. The majority will stay right here in our community,” she said. “Melanie Nielsen is covering all the postage for the shipping. It really is a village effort.”
Local stores have helped by donating materials--Calico Corners donated 28 yards of interfacing and Dramatic Decor donated 50 yards of fabric.
“If there is someone who wants to make masks, they can do it remotely from their dining room table. We can tell them where to drop the masks. They are being given to organizations that are running out and truly need them,” said Terlizzi.
So far, masks have been provided to Treasure Coast Hospice, nursing homes, physician offices, preschools, immunocompromised persons, caregivers, emergency room doctors, nurses working in emergent care and volunteers at non-profit organizations.
Mask makers take them to these drop box sites: United Way of Martin County office--these will go to front line volunteers working at non-profits; the Council on Aging at the Kane Center on Salerno Road; the Emergency Operations Center at the Martin County Sheriffs office.
As Joan Raines says, anybody can do this. She became inspired when she saw a step-by-step video Terlizzi had posted on Facebook.
“It didn’t look that hard, even though I’m not a crafty person. So, I called Rachel to see what I needed. I got the machine, thread, needles, cloth, and interfacing. The worst part was threading the machine and the bobbin; that took about an hour. The first two masks were horrendous and then after that it went well. I was surprised at myself that I was able to do this and I’m so glad I can help. I literally watched the video about 100 times I think!”
“We really hope hearing about this will inspire others,” said Ghazal.
“We need more compassionate people who want to help,” Terlizzi said. “We even have an extra sewing machine that someone donated. But what we really need is more people to jump in and help. We are also happy to do a Facetime call to help them get started. We need more manpower.”
Besides workers, the Mask Making Brigade also needs lots of elastic, which has become hard to find in stores. To help, please contact Terlizzi at rterlizzi@unitedwaymartin.org or Trent at jenniferdtrent@gmail.com.
Financial contributions can be made through the United Way of Martin County. Your donation can be earmarked for mask materials or towards the COVID-19 Economic Relief Fund.
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