One of the first grant applications the United Way of Northern Arizona received after starting the COVID-19 Fund last month was a modest request from Threaded Together.
This nonprofit was founded last October with the mission of inspiring creativity through textile arts, enriching the community, and providing employment pathways for women and vulnerable populations.
Then coronavirus hit, and now Threaded Together has an additional goal: bringing the community together to create protective masks.
The funds provided by the COVID-19 Fund is being used to pay wages for three part-time employees to work 20 hours a week for four weeks to create masks fashioned out of #2 polypropylene plastic fabric donated by Flagstaff Medical Center.
Although they aren’t the high-level N95 masks that have been in short supply since the pandemic started, these masks do play a powerful role in protecting workers and volunteers during this time, according to Lindsey Watson, the group’s executive director.
“These masks may be essential for community organizations like shelters, food panties, childcare centers, assisted living facilities, and doctors’ offices,” she said. “In addition they could be used to cover N95s to help them last longer in a shortage, as is being done in many hospitals nationwide.”
In addition to sewing masks themselves, Threaded Together has enabled the community to get involved. In fact, at the end of last month, Threaded Together created kits that members of the public could pick up to create a total of 2,400 masks. The kits were gone in just two days. As of this week, Threaded Together and its volunteers have produced more than 4,000 masks.
