As the extent to which the coronavirus outbreak threatened our medical resources, many residents of Kamas Valley rallied to help. In this brief post, Kay Card and Mary Lewis of the Kamas Valley Historical Preservation Group shares their experiences.

At the end of February, after hearing what was happening in China and also Italy, I began to wonder what would be happening around the world and how we would be affected in this country. My son, his wife and daughter were scheduled to go to Italy for business and pleasure. A friend was scheduled to go to France for a three-month stay and other friends were planning oversea trips to Italy, Spain, Germany and their trips were canceled. My sister is a travel agent and she was experiencing significant changes in the travel industry. Then we learned that my granddaughter, living in Eugene, OR, had been diagnosed with COVID-19. She had her first child in November and was now in quarantine with her family and trying to get well.

Soon after this schools were cancelled, churches were shut down, people were asked to “shelter at home”, and life became less than normal. Then I heard that LDS Charities, Intermountain Healthcare, and University of Utah Health were collaborating to make 5,000,000 hospital grade face masks in five weeks. As a seamstress and quilter–I thought—I could do this. So, I signed up with JustServe.org, picked up my three mask kits of 100 each and with the help of my husband, Brian, we began our face mask service. I have continued to sew masks each week for ProjectProtect. Then, after the recovery of my granddaughter, I began making cloth face masks for her, her husband, my two daughters and their family in the Pacific NW and my daughter and family in Massachusetts. I have made masks for friends and family here in Utah. It is gratifying to know that in some small way, I have contributed the best way possible during this time of coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic.

Kay Card

I will make

This little verse is so good and sums up how it felt to help make the masks for the UofU hospital and other facilities during this serious pandemic Covid-19. While sewing the first batch of 100, I felt like part of an army of women coming to the call. As did the women in factories during WW2. “We need 5,000,000 masks.”
The second batch of 75 I didn’t mind doing, I did leave them to the last minute, however. That put stress on me and I looked at them and thought Uggg.. that’s a lot and my back and wrist hurts. So I said a simple prayer. My answer was profound!! “It’s not that you have so much to do, but that’s not much and you GET TO DO THEM!!” Wow. My attitude changed and I was actually sad when I got them done. “Is that all?”  Darn. I’ll definitely volunteer again. What a privilege! Every mask counts…could it be one I made that saved a life?
“It takes just one drop of water to begin an ocean!”

Mary Lewis