When Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, had to alter its Month of the Military Child celebration plans, the USO and Airman & Family Readiness Center opted to hand out activity bags to the children. Inside those bags were child-sized face masks.
Air Force spouses Edvin Dover and Rachel Miller joined forces to tackle the giant task of making masks to protect the children living on base. "Over the last week and a half, these women handmade almost 400 child-sized masks to give away to the children of Creech AFB community," said Kim Chmielewski, key spouse for the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron.
And they aren't the only ones stepping up to help out.
Face masks are in incredible demand right now, and many military spouses have been making them for their community and for sale. Units overseas have used military spouse volunteers -- and service members -- to produce masks for the community. Even I have made more than a hundred masks for the local military hospital, my spouse's unit and military spouses in the community.
Making masks may be a simple task if you have experience sewing, but they are still time-consuming. Finding materials is another obstacle, as elastic is on back order on Amazon and fabric is limited. With the additional requirements of solid color masks for service members, and even more specific guidelines on colors by particular units, the cost increases.
Military spouses Megan Brown and Sarah Mainwaring started sewing and formed the group Milspo Mask Makers at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. They started with masks for health care workers and essential personnel. But when the Defense Department mandated the use of masks on installations, they shifted focus.
Brown described the assembly line at her kitchen table, where she and Mainwaring sew for eight-hour blocks, producing about 200 masks a day. "We sit at opposite ends of my dining room table. I assemble; my kids flip them inside out and trim them; then Sarah irons, pleats and top-stitches," she said.
Milspo Mask Makers is encouraging military spouses "to stand in the gap and sew 10,000 masks for the community." It has partnered with other organizations, like the military spouse-founded nonprofit WeHaveMasks.org to make this a real possibility. Between Milspo Mask Makers and We Have Masks, almost 8,000 masks have been distributed.
Do you want to help? Here are some ways you can:
1. If you sew and have material, get going! The most popular pattern (and the easiest, in my opinion) is this one.
2. If you don't sew but want to help, find someone local who is making masks and see if you can help by cutting fabric.
3. If you want to sew but don't have material, consider getting one of the kits from We Have Masks.
4. Post a picture of the masks you have made and use the #milspomaskmakers.
Brown admits that it's tiring work, but she knows it's important. She was heartbroken when she saw a young mother turned away from the commissary because she didn't have a required mask, so Brown is donating some to the commissary to prevent that from happening again.
"We're going to make masks until we're no longer needed," she said.
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--Rebecca Alwine can be reached at rebecca.alwine@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebecca_alwine.
