About a month ago Lisa Knight, Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the Urban League of West Michigan was in her car, thinking about how she could help her community fend off coronavirus.
"I'm a woman of faith and I heard in my spirit, 'call Janay and see if you can get this done,'" she said.
The Janay she's talking about is Janay Brower, the founder of Public Thread, which describes itself as a "community-based upcycling company working to divert scrap and surplus textiles from our landfills, create living wage jobs, and support a growing creative economy."
Together, the two of them came up with the idea for a large-scale effort to make masks for those who need them. After starting an email chain, they were able to put together a list of 150 volunteer sewists who are helping, along with workers at Public Thread.
"We've just been plugging at it, day after day," Knight said.
The masks are made of non-woven interfacing fabric sandwiched between 100% cotton.
Many of the masks will be sold at cost to pay for the materials and labor needed to do the job. However, many of the masks will be free for those who need them the most and would otherwise have a hard time finding and paying for them.
"Seniors in healthcare facilities, people that are still going through chemotherapy, those that have low immune systems," were some examples Knight gave.
"We had a whole tribal community that reached out to us and it's nothing but elders there and they have absolutely nothing. We're going to get product to them."
If you need a mask or if you have money or materials you can donate to help this effort, you can visit Public Thread's website to do so.
How others are helping during the pandemic:
RELATED VIDEO:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.