When hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes put out calls on Facebook for homemade masks, sewing circles across the state picked up their needles.
On March 21, Marshfield Clinic Health System Foundation asked the community to sew masks for Marshfield Clinic patients. The handsewn masks will be used by patients and visitors, conserving the N95 masks for healthcare workers.
“People have reached out from all over the place asking how they can help,” said Teri Wilczek, Chief Philanthropy Officer with the Foundation. “It’s been absolutely overwhelming.”
Marshfield Clinic has set up a very specific system for making the masks, including instructions for the style they are accepting, which can be found on its Facebook page.
“We’re truly hoping we can get hundreds of thousands of masks,” Wilczek told NewsChannel 7. “CDC has indicated that during times of crisis, patients can use masks like this, and that these are sufficient to create kind of a barrier needed if they do have to come into our medical complexes. So, our focus now is to have these available to all of our patients when they come in at all of our Marshfield Clinic sites across the system.”
Other hospitals and healthcare facilities are asking for masks. River Falls Area Hospital has set up a collection site at its facility to accept handsewn masks, along with other Allina Health facilities.
“Our communities are always looking for ways to help each other. We are so heartened by the response and are grateful for the public wanting to assist us in this critical hour,” said Helen Strike, COVID-19 System Incident Commander for Allina Health, in a news release.
Instructions to make the handsewn masks are available at: https://www.allinahealth.org/coronavirus/caring-for-caregivers
Not all hospitals are accepting handsewn masks. People who want to donate should check their local health care facilities websites and social media for information.
Andrea Palm, secretary of the state Department of Health Services, said Wisconsin has received its supply from the national stockpile. That includes roughly 130,000 surgical masks, 24,800 face shields, 20,200 surgical gowns, 72,000 pairs of gloves, and 54,700 N95 respirator masks. Yet that may not be enough if there is a surge in patients.
Stephanie Butero and Natalie Hanson of Eau Claire started a Facebook group titled “Mask Beez.” They asked people with sewing skills to make masks to donate locally. In 3 days, more than 1,000 people had joined the group.