Make a difference. Make a mask!

The last two weeks California has been on mandatory lockdown due to the COVID virus. The lock down was not shocking news to me as my sister had already been on lock down in Italy and my cutter was on the front lines of delivering medical staff to the cruise ship outside the Golden Gate. So I was aware of the severity of the virus and the direction we were headed in order to get it under control.

What shocked me was the reaction of people when they found out about the lockdown. We came home from patrol and I went to get groceries and I came back to an empty store. There wasn't a single vegetable; fresh or frozen. Among almost all dry goods and all cleaning products and toilet paper. TOILET PAPER!!! I was astounded at people's reaction to hoard toilet paper. It isn't a virus that is making you lose your guts so why was everyone needing s*** loads of toilet paper now (Pun intended)? That's when I realized just how greedy and selfish people were going to be with this pandemic going on and I immediately looked for ways that I could help.

My family raised me in a way that you should always always help others out and treat them the way you wished to be treated. Last year I was on the receiving end of things during the government shutdown when we didn't get paid for two months. I was extremely grateful to everyone that helped support me during that time either personally or through my business startup. A lot of those people happened to work in the medical field. So I knew immediately how this virus would impact them. They would be on the front lines, risking their health, their families health, and working long hours. They stepped into a whole new level of heroism but everyone else in the world didn't seem to give a crap as all of the masks and gloves and cleaning supplies were bought up and hoarded. That stuff is like Thor's hammer or wonder woman's whip to medical people. Tools necessary to do their job, protect themselves and the people of this world. And you have social media famous people taking videos of them wasting these items just because they can and all the while getting paid for it. Seeing this literally made my blood boil.

So the minute I found out that the CDC was allowing health care professionals to wear home made masks, I jumped right on it. I called the local hospital where I am stationed but unfortunately got bounced around person to person and never got an answer on if they would be accepting masks. So I moved onto my hometown hospital where I got the OK a few days later to make masks for them. And I reached out to family friends that worked in the field to see if they needed anything. I picked up kits from Joaan's to make more masks for the hospitals in my county. I took an oath to save lives when I joined the Coast Guard, on and off duty. So when these people needed PPE and if everyone else was going to idly sit on their hoarded stash of stuff, I was going to sew away to help save lives.

Sewing isn't hard, but not everyone knows how to do it. But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways you can help out to make masks. Everyone knows how to cut and most people know how to iron. So if you don't know how to sew, link up with someone that does and offer to cut fabric and iron it for them while they do the sewing. It will help them out tremendously and in the end, more masks can be produced. So don't sit idly by with the excuse of “I would help but I don't know how to sew”. You don't have to know how to sew to help out in this brigade, you just have to have the heart and willingness to do something to help save lives. Because if you were on the other end of things, you would be hoping people would be doing the same for you.

**If you or someone you know is in the medical field and in need of surgical masks, please contact me at madebymaddie92@gmail.com with your request so I can send you some!