Nurses, doctors and other medical workers on the front lines fighting the coronavirus pandemic are facing a serious shortage of crucial protective gear. Ethan Grugan ’20 and his mother are stepping up to help from their home by sewing handmade masks.

“The CDC said they’re running out of equipment pretty quickly, and we’ve got nothing but time on our hands,” Grugan said. “We’re just in the house and doing whatever we can do to make a difference really—to help people.”

Grugan’s mother saw a post online and decided to pitch in to the efforts—using hairbands for straps and stitching the cloth together on a sewing machine. 

The “mask covers” are meant to be placed over normal masks to allow for typically one-time-use “N95” medical masks to be used multiple times.

With a dwindling supply of medical masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have suggested the use of homemade masks and limited reuse of facemasks as a last resort in their “Crisis Capacity Strategies” guidelines.

“In settings where facemasks are not available, [healthcare personnel] HCP might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort,” according to CDC guidelines. “Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield.”

While Grugan said his mother is doing almost all the sewing, he’s been helping out and spreading the word to encourage more people to do the same.

Their goal? “Just as many as we can,” Grugan says. 

So far they’ve completed almost 50 masks which they’ll be donating to both a private practice and a hospital in Philadelphia where Grugan’s aunts work.

The instructions and pattern used to make the masks is available here: https://sweetredpoppy.com/how-to-sew-a-surgical-face-mask/