Local women sew protective masks for area hospitals, first responders

Several local women are helping to keep local medical professionals safe from COVID-19 by contributing surgical masks to eastern Iowa hospitals and first responders.

Among them are Gunder’s Glenda Koehn, who is well known for her beautifully-decorated “Cakes by Glenda” and Monona’s Vicki Klingeman and Fran Passmore. 

“Along with making cakes, I am a quilter,” Koehn said. “I decided making masks was something I could do to help. I found that I had plenty of material to make masks. The pattern I started using called for elastic either 1/4th or 1/8th inch wide. I had neither, so I was kind of slow getting started.”

After finding some elastic, Koehn said she made about a dozen masks before running out of the elastic. She added that elastic is kind of a hot commodity right now and is not readily available. Not willing to give up, she went to Plan B. 

“A friend sent me another pattern from a seamstress who lives near Fort Dodge that uses ties rather than elastic,” she said. “Now I am back in business.”

Passmore said she looked online to find hospitals that needed masks, finding that Unity Point Medical Center in Cedar Rapids needed a specialized type that has air vents and a pouch that holds a filter, and that the hospital in West Burlington needed masks that feature elastic on the corners and tucks so that they fit around the ears. The Unity Point masks also use pipe cleaners that help the mask fit close to the user’s face. In total she sent 20 masks to West Burlington and was working on her 10th for Unity Point at the time of this interview.

“One of the hospitals said they have enough (masks) but that they never know when they will run out,” Passmore said, adding that the hospital said it would also disperse masks to other medical professionals who need them. “They’re all working together.”

Read the full article in the April 1 edition of the Postville Herald and The Monona Outlook.