Action – If you can sew, if you have material, please help!
Message from Amy B Towner, MBA, Chief Executive Officer
Health Care Foundation for Ventura County, Inc.
“Thank you for your willingness to sew and donate your time, talent and fabric for this endeavor. These masks will be used countywide. Point of entry will be Ventura County Medical Center for dissemination which is part of your Ventura County Health Care Agency. Our Trauma Nurse, Gina Ferrer will be receiving and disseminating and her information and drop off location is below.”
- If you are showing signs of symptoms (cough, fever, sore throat), please do not sew.
- We need
- 100% cotton fabric fabric, NO BLENDS. Please reach out to your networks for any that can be used.
- People who can just cut material
- People to sew the masks, using the pattern and instructions below.
- People who can pick up and drop off products who are healthy for those elderly helping who can’t leave the home.
If you are able to do any of these tasks, please email Amy at amy.towner@ventura.org with the following information:
1) Full Name
2) Cell Phone
3) Email address
4) Full residential address
5) Need (“have fabric supply to donate”, or “need fabric so I can sew” or “I can drive for supply/demand”)
Mask instructions:
The mask Ventura health professionals want is this one, which goes high up on the nose and low on neck and can double as a mask and N95 cover. Note that it has cloth ties, not elastic, which dissolves in hospital laundry autoclaves. They are assuming that these masks will be used for 5 months, so they need quality over quantity for healthcare workers and more people to sew. (This was “Option 9” on our Friday post.)
Instructions here. Please follow them as exactly as you can, using two (or three layers if possible) new thick pieces of 100% cotton with no blends for infection control. After finishing mask, please wash your hands, wipe down your ironing board, and iron the mask(s) on HIGH to help kill germs and put them in ziplock bags (you can put more than one mask in a bag).
Drop finished masks to Gina Ferrer (Trauma nurse) at 765 Saratoga Avenue in Ventura. Text to 805.216.2165 to alert them to expect your delivery.
More from Amy…
“Please take pictures of sewing or modeling your masks and send to amy.towner@ventura.org , we want to document our virtual effort!
Every day, I will be attending the Incident Command meeting and getting feedback from CDC and CDPH in case we need to make changes to mask.
With the response of the state and federal government, we may need to rally as a community, use our networks to ascertain products, drive provisions, or assemble items. We ask you to stay nimble and agile in this process as it changes rapidly.
Public Health got a report today from Joann Fabrics that people are in line to buy “fabric for masks” but are perusing the aisles buying unessential items. We need to flatten the curve of this disease by social distancing. Your social distancing also helps our healthcare workers just like the mask. Most people are using their own personal stock or asking others to drop off at their doorstep of their personal stock. We especially want those of mature age to stay inside and they should not be shopping for mask material. Thank you for observing the Public Health Officer wishes. Again, you should not be sewing if you have symptoms or potentially exposed to a person who tested positive. We are helping by all doing our part on every front.
One thing we have seen through all the disasters we have had the past few years is our community heart and spirit. Together, we can help flatten the curve by observing our social distance. Staying vigilant to help in healthy ways to support healthcare workers and flatten the curve of this beast!
We will need to stay nimble and agile in response. Thank you, again, for your assistance in helping protect our community. WW2 ladies made bullets for protection; 2020 volunteers make masks for protection!!! Stronger together!!!
– Amy Towner
