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Terra's Mask-Making Fund

I'm making free masks for my community to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Maryland

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Terra's Mask-Making Fund

Terra's Mask-Making Fund

Terra's Mask-Making Fund

Terra's Mask-Making Fund

Terra's Mask-Making Fund

I'm making free masks for my community to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Maryland

I'm making free masks for my community to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Maryland

I'm making free masks for my community to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Maryland

I'm making free masks for my community to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in Maryland

Terra Albert
Terra Albert
Terra Albert
Terra Albert
1 Campaign |
Mount Airy, United States
$260 USD 6 backers
34% of $750 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
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Summary

Hi, I'm Terra, and I live in Mount Airy, Maryland. If you've seen our town in the news recently, it's because it's become a hotspot for COVID-19. After getting over the initial stress of the pandemic coming to my hometown, I realized: I have a sewing machine, some extra fabric, a little skill, and some free time. "I should get involved and make masks for healthcare workers," I thought.

So I called the nursing home where the outbreak was, and they said they were wearing N95 masks only, with fabric masks not needed from the community. I called some friends in other healthcare jobs, and they said the same. I even called the local food bank--they haven't gotten back to me yet, and aren't accepting non-monetary donations from the public at the moment.

Then I had to go out for groceries, and I saw someone with a towel tied around their face in lieu of a mask, and thought "I should focus on the community, because that's where fabric masks can be most useful." So I'm making masks, distributing them around the community where I see they are needed, and hopefully continuing to do this after everything reopens, because I think that the public wearing masks will be crucial to avoiding a second COVID-19 wave.

Why I Need Your Help

For now, I am fortunate enough to be able to provide these masks for free--however, if I want to provide a meaningful quantity of masks, I will need all the help I can get from my recipients (and anyone you share the link with!). I'm currently furloughed from work, and I've spent a lot of my own time and money on materials so far. I'm glad I have the opportunity to give back to my community, but until my income source returns, I'll only be able to do so much. (Fortunately the state of Maryland's unemployment system is not as bad as some other states', but I've still had trouble with the website, so I haven't received benefits yet.)

All funds will go to me to recover the cost of the fabric and materials (about $200 so far) and help with my bills. If this campaign makes over $1000 in the 60 days it will run, all extra money will go to the Mt. Airy NET food bank--and honestly, after I pay for the fabric, I will try to make a donation no matter what, even if it's not a lot. Every little bit helps, both for me and everyone else.

Challenges So Far

I wanted to start distribution much earlier, but the project it a few snags along the way. I tried multiple prototypes to see which one would be the best fit for the most people, and I eventually settled on a slightly modified version of the UF Department of Anesthesiology Prototype 1... but it took a while to get there. (See my FAQ for the video link)

Then I spent hours cutting a certain fabric I had into dozens of squares... and I didn't find out that it wasn't breathable enough to use in masks until I made one and try it on. That was an annoying and slightly embarrassing lesson to learn, and I learned in on April 16th, two days before the new law in Maryland went into effect mandating face coverings when entering any retail store. Oops.

That unusable fabric represented a huge quantity of the fabric I had, so of course I had to go buy some, and... well, the supply at Wal-Mart has been decimated, of course. I wound up ordering online from Joann Fabrics (god love 'em, they're still doing curbside pick-ups) and I was able to order about $100 worth of fabric from them, although the supply was going quickly. I've had to improvise some fabric sources (i.e. I bought some bed sheets to cut up) but those are poly-cotton blends, rather than the recommended 100% cotton. But I had to do what I had to do, and I made sure to test everything this time to make sure it was breathable!

These challenges slowed me down, but did not stop me. I am in this for the long haul, because even after life returns back to normal--and despite what ANYONE says, we really don't know exactly when that will be--the need for masks will not disappear overnight. I will keep making them as long as they are needed.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't contribute any money, that's okay! I appreciate you taking the time to read this far! <3

But you can still help me a lot by spreading the word to your friends, so that I can get more masks out there, and potentially more contributions. You can use the Indiegogo share tools, you can copy and paste the link to social media, you can text it to someone, you can send it in Morse Code to your quarantined neighbors--whatever works! Even just leaving a message is appreciated.

A Word of Gratitude From Me

If you found this link through receiving one of my masks, I hope it's nice and comfy, and it keeps you safe and healthy. If you found it through any other means, thank you for your time--it means a lot to me to have this opportunity to help people, and to have someone who hasn't even benefited from my hard work yet reading about it is pretty neat.

I've never really done any project like this before. I didn't take up the mask-making effort because I'm a particularly good or noble person, I don't think--it just seemed like the least I could do to help those around me, rather than sit around and waste all this time when I have the skill to help. I'm a pretty privileged person, all things considered, and I could've wound up in a much worse situation if this had happened at any other time. A lot of good things were going on in my life just before the pandemic, but a lot of them weren't time-sensitive, so they're just delayed, not outright cancelled. I would've been in a much worse situation if this had happened last year, or next year, or even maybe a few months from now (I was in the process of moving closer to work before this happened, but that's been put sorta on hold for now).

This has helped me re-evaluate how I look at myself as well--I didn't think I would have any skills that would be useful in a global-catastrophe situation, and I certainly didn't think I'd emerge as a hardworking person in a circumstance that forced everyone to stay home. And sure, I played my fair share of video games! But then I got to do this.

True story: as I was typing this section, I got a message of gratitude from a friend who had already received some masks from me. That was awesome.

So not only have I been quite lucky (despite being unemployed), but I am in a position to help others benefit from my relatively-good fortune. I hope these benefits are felt in my community, and I wish everyone the best. Stay safe, stay inside, and stay positive.

Love, Terra

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