John Scarffe, Gilpin County. As the Corona Virus, COVID-19, spreads throughout Colorado, more than a dozen volunteers in Gilpin County have banded together to sew masks for health-care providers and others serving the public. The project produces medical-type face masks that can help to extend the supply of regulation R95 masks and for those who are looking for masks that can be used by others than first responders.

Three people lead the project. Julia Shaw represents the north end of Gilpin County. Laura Richards represents the middle of the County and Sharon Perea at the south end. They are trying to reach businesses and voluntary organizations that are serving the public and medical, dental and veterinary professionals. 

On March 21, they delivered 30 masks to a veterinary clinic, because they don’t have any masks at all, so they are trying to keep them up and going to take care of critical loving family members, Richards said. They also dropped nine at Base Camp across from the Gilpin County Community Center.  

On March 22, they delivered 40 masks to B&F Market in Nederland. Shaw said they have also heard from an Emergency Room nurse who needs help. A lot of the nurses have been asked to wear out the mask they currently have, because new ones are in short supply.

“We are getting masks to them to extend the lives of the medical grade masks they have,” Richards said. The goals is not to create something virus proof but to offer some protection and to extend the life and supply of R95 masks as well as surgery and medical-grade masks for as long as possible.

“Our focus is the mountain communities, including Evergreen, Gilpin County and Nederland,” Shaw said. “We are not intending to do a lot in Denver and Golden. We want to help our mountain communities because we often get forgotten up here.”

Richards said that on March 21, Gov. Polis announced that they have a quarter of the of protective equipment supply they are going to need. “Every little bit helps, and it keeps us busy and productive and not thinking about ourselves,” Richards said.

Richards said her responsibility is to help organize distribution of supplies and volunteers to make the masks. She has used her stockpile and those of a local quilting club and other people who sew for materials to make the masks. They are going through their existing stocks in their homes and stitching those up. 

Richards said that as soon as she started hearing that the country was running out of mask supplies and heard hospitals were out of supply, she decided she could create a protection barrier. She looked online to see different patterns for production and asked friends in the medical field, who said they need something flexible, so she flipped the design to using ribbons on the corners, so they can tie, instead of elastic, and made it more adjustable to a person’s face.

She went with pleats and a flexible style, so they can be placed over medical masks. If something splashed, it would splash on the cotton mask first instead of on the medical grade mask. Medical professionals said to create a lining with flannel or fleece, so it is absorbent and gentle across the face. 

“I took what they said and the pattern they recommended using, and we are just whipping it out,” Richards said. Shaw said the design is based on a pattern available on the Center for Disease Control website and using their specifications. 

The masks can be used in two ways. First, they can be used as a secondary cover over R95 masks that doctors and nurses use. The masks are washable. Their other use is more appropriate for area workers who are in contact with the public.

The group has five or six people who have volunteered to help with deliveries. Some sewing volunteers are vulnerable, so they will deliver supplies to them and bring completed masks back to distribution center at Laura Richards’ house.

Sharon Perea said that the goal is to find people who would sew masks and direct them to Richards. She contacted seniors and church members for anyone who might do some sewing. Everyone she tracked down has been glad to make masks. 

“We’re just barely starting this and just finding the resources,” Perea said, adding they also got some material from a local thrift store. If a woman would like to be at her home and provide whatever they can making them, that would help. “If we have ten people making 10 masks, that’s 100.” 

The project needs volunteers, including people who can sew, people who can help with deliveries and donations of fabric, flannel and 100 percent cotton, ribbons or half inch to quarter inch biastap for masks. They also could use rubber gloves. Delivery volunteers are asked to wear masks and gloves.

For more information or to help out, contact 303-642-0243.

(Originally published in the March 26, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)