{"id":129997,"date":"2020-04-03T23:07:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T04:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=129997"},"modified":"2020-04-06T07:04:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T12:04:18","slug":"vw-mother-daughter-team-make-give-away-cloth-masks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/04\/03\/vw-mother-daughter-team-make-give-away-cloth-masks\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother & daughter make, donate masks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one mother and daughter, the old clich\u00e9 \u201ctaking lemons and making lemonade\u201d has become a way to deal with the changes and uncertainties that have come with the coronavirus pandemic. Although, instead of lemons and lemonade, the two have substituted cloth and making face masks to help fill the need for personal protection equipment (PPEs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mail carrier Ashley Lantz wears a mask made by her supervisor, Jessica Chavarria, and Jessica\u2019s daughter, Kierston Schneider. photos provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID-19 has kind of taken over everyone\u2019s life,\u201d Jessica Chavarria said, noting that the masks she and daughter Kierston make are meant to be \u201ca sign of hope\u201d for a community still reeling from the effects of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to do something positive came in the wake of Ohio officials\u2019 \u201cstay at home\u201d order in March. With her daughter at home with the closing of Ohio schools, Chavarria and Kierston decided they would make cloth masks to help out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt kind of just began as a thing to do because my daughter is quarantined and we\u2019ve got to find something to do,\u201d Chavarria said, adding that Kierston, a freshman at Van Wert High School, put it even more simply: \u201cIt\u2019s better than going crazy, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria said the two first began giving out the masks, which she learned how to make from a YouTube video, to family, friends, and co-workers at the Van Wert Post Office. However, as social media got wind of the project, the requests began pouring in. Now the pair\u2019s masks are being sent all over the country, from California to Florida — whoever requests them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria said a Los Angeles nurse, after seeing one of the posts, made an online request for masks, as did several nursing homes, including one in Florida. The pair also donated some masks for non-COVID-19 use to the local hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just quickly manifested into everyone (who asks),\u201d Chavarria said. The demand has kept the mother-and-daughter mask-making team busy ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI can\u2019t say no,\u201d she said, adding that the masks are given away free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the demand increased, that\u2019s when post office co-workers, among others, stepped up to donate cloth and elastic material for the masks. The postal supervisor said the post office and co-workers have donated more than 30 percent of all the material she and Kierston use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat speaks volumes about our company and the employees we employ,\u201d she said. It\u2019s also one of her primary reasons for making the masks, Chavarria said, noting that, although postal workers aren\u2019t dealing with patients, they are nearly as susceptible to illness as medical workers, since they deliver mail to every house in a community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria also said she feels seeing mail carriers in masks will let local residents know they (carriers) are taking the pandemic seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Some of the later masks Chavarria and Kierston have made.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully, when the community sees (mail carriers) wearing a mask, it kinds of signifies our social distancing, and that they shouldn’t approach us,\u201d she explained, adding it\u2019s her hope that the masks keep carriers safer while out delivering mail. In addition to Van Wert, Chavarria and her daughter have also made and donated masks to other area post offices, including the one in Delphos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria, the daughter of local residents Robert and Denise Chavarria, moved back to Van Wert from Texas with her family last September, and were getting acclimated again to life in the community when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria said Kierston, 15, who plays soccer and basketball for the Cougars when school is in session, starts work on the masks in the morning while her mother is at work. When Chavarria gets home, she then helps finish the masks, noting that the two can turn out 75-100 masks a day. So far, 370 masks have been donated, with more and more being requested all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chavarria said she and Kierston plan to make around 300 from Friday through Sunday, all of which will be sent out on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she readily admits the cloth masks are not as good as an N95 mask for dealing with the coronavirus, Chavarria said the masks can be washed and reused, along with being more than capable of handling most non-COVID-19 contact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said nursing homes and other medical facilities are in dire need for masks, and while they can\u2019t use cloth ones for COVID-19 cases, they can be used for just about every other purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince there\u2019s such a shortage (of masks), anything is better than nothing for them,\u201d Chavarria said of health workers, adding that the more cloth masks people make, the more N95 masks available for healthcare workers treating COVID-19 cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor For one mother and daughter, the old clich\u00e9 \u201ctaking lemons and making lemonade\u201d has become a way to deal with the changes and uncertainties that have come with the coronavirus pandemic. Although, instead of lemons and lemonade, the two have substituted cloth and making face masks to help fill the need for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 00:46:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}