Covid-19 Sewing (5)

Like so many others, I've learned to make masks.

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you already know that I spend three mornings each [normal] week working in the office of a very small school that serves children on the autism spectrum. We have twenty-seven students, and about the same number of teachers plus behavior analysts, speech therapists, and occupational therapists. I love my little job and am filled with admiration for the professionals who work with students who can be very, very challenging, sometimes difficult, and occasionally scary.

Now these people are at home, trying to do their jobs, trying to teach autistic kids through the wonders of FaceTime and Zoom and some sort of a Goggle app that I don't understand. The kids don't know why everything is different; the teachers are doing their best with the added feature of their own kids, toddlers, and infants underfoot.

And at the end of last week the American people were told we need to wear masks when we go out.

I've missed the kids, the teachers, the other professionals so much. And with that pronouncement, the mask requirement, I knew what I could do! My teachers don't sew. I sew. I put out an offer to provide a pair of masks to anyone who requested same.

It's been a busy couple of days. The mask recipe I chose takes about 47 minutes to complete one mask. I'm about halfway done fulfilling the requests. It's been fun. Tiring, hard on the back, but fun.

Some of the teachers wanted to pay me. I told them no, it is my pleasure to take just a bit of the burden off of them. We are supposed to help each other, especially during hard times. I finally told them if they had to do something, they could make a donation to my church's food pantry.

This beautiful floral offering was waiting outside my door this morning. One of the therapists had picked up her pair of masks and left them in exchange.

If they aren't a hope for a brighter future, I don't know what is.

Oh, and here's Himself, sporting the latest fashion.