Group of Mid-Missouri seamstresses gives away over 4,700 face coverings

Effort began with a borrowed sewing machine and a Googled pattern

By Laura Schiermeier, Staff Writer
Posted 5/6/20

VIENNA — One person can make a big difference. Especially when what they are doing can help people stay safe and it also inspires others to be part of the project.

That’s what happened …

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Group of Mid-Missouri seamstresses gives away over 4,700 face coverings

Effort began with a borrowed sewing machine and a Googled pattern

Posted

VIENNA — One person can make a big difference. Especially when what they are doing can help people stay safe and it also inspires others to be part of the project.

That’s what happened to Vienna native (1990 VHS graduate) and current Ashland resident, Lorie (Helton) Fussner. She was reading about the COVID-19 coronavirus and about the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the state and the nation. She told herself, “It can’t be that hard” to make face masks to help protect people from the virus. She didn’t have a sewing machine and she said she possessed only very basic sewing skills. But she had the will to do it. So, Fussner borrowed a sewing machine and Googled mask making and made one. Before she knew it, she’d made five masks.

She formed a new Facebook page, Central Missouri Mask Makers, and it was the spark that lighted the fire. After that, she was never the only one making masks as people from all over the Ashland area wanted to help. From Jefferson City to Columbia and beyond, the sewing of masks began as did donations from people who wanted to help in that way.

Fussner, 48, has worked from home for the past 10 years as a teacher doing online education for Pearson. She also is a successful real estate agent so she’s pretty busy. Plus her husband, Bill, is working from home and her two teenage sons, Cade, 16, who works at a golf course, and Colton, 13, who is home so they are a together, busy family right now.

Managing the sewing group

As the number of people sewing masks grew exponentially, so did the number of masks the group was making. Fussner began to spend much of her time being the administrator of the growing group and its need. She was managing the Facebook group, taking care of collecting the donations, buying supplies, and locating drop off sites, which the Broadway Diner in Columbia was one, and her front porch in Ashland was another place where the completed masks were left.

The group has some good sewers and Fussner said she has made a lot of new friends. These friends are people with big hearts and lots of compassion for other people. Everybody came together on this project and these individuals showed so much kindness. Fussier said she thinks God put this on her heart to make a difference during a difficult time.

Local donations

They have been able to continue to make the masks, a total that was at 4,784 on Monday, with the continual donation of fabrics, money and elastic. They bought fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and Satin Stitches. And, Satin Stitches offered free fabric on Fridays to make masks. That business also donated hundreds of yards of elastic, something that they were having trouble finding. One lady contacted her and said she had a 90-year-old relative with a sewing room in the basement they wanted to clean out and donate the fabric to the mask making ladies.

Friends of Dorcas

Fussner said a “huge part of our group is the Friends of Dorcas,” a group of sewers in the Tipton/California area. She was asked to get in touch with them and she did. She talked to a Mennonite gentleman who had a lot of young women using industrial sewing machines. It was the dad of some of the young women whom she spoke with. The company is Martin Energy, Tipton, and they had a lot of resources and help. They talked and came together on this project. She made more new friends.

The Friends of Dorcas group had access to industrial fabric cutting machines and 12 industrial sewing machines. They had a factory that used to sew leather and they began to sew masks for the good of the communities. Fussner worked with the husband, wife and their two older daughters who ran the factory and kept it moving. This group provided 1,500 to 2,000 masks in one week, churning out 450 masks in a day.

“I don’t mean to diminish what others have done as all of them are important” Fussner said, but this group really made their number of masks go up. Other sewers may have sewn 20 masks or less but all of them were donated to people in need of them in the communities. Each mask has helped someone.

Media spreads the word

The media attention the Central Missouri Mask Makers group received also helped them serve more people. A Columbia group is doing a documentary about them. They have made contact with Fussner a couple of times and want to film one of the drop-offs from the Friends of Dorcas. Fussner meets them in Jefferson City to pick up the masks they’ve made and she gets them into the distribution part of the group. The Columbia Tribune newspaper did a front-page article about Fussner and the group of mask makers and this added about 50 people to the Facebook page. Then a Channel 17 reporter did an interview with her at a park and “it blew up,” adding 400 people to the Facebook page, new masks makers, and donations from people who wanted to help with their efforts. She received a check from someone in Troy, MO.

Masks go everywhere

“It was so awesome to take four hundred masks to the Truman VA Volunteer Center,” she said. Once word about the group and their free masks got out, they were swamped with requests from places such as Boone Electric, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, doctor’s offices, and people who just needed a mask. Fussner said, “People were so darn grateful and thankful.”

Nursing homes and assisted living places in Jefferson City, Columbia, Fayette and more at first requested the masks for their employees. One place asked for 50, which they received, then asked for 150 so all of the residents could have a mask. A place in Fayette received 50 and asked for 100 more. The masks are used by employees, residents, home health workers, people going places, and people who are sick. One lady in Centralia was sent two masks and Fussner said she acted as if she’d been given $1 million she was so grateful.

Masks were sent to Aldi’s in Rolla, to a destination in Kansas City. Vienna nurse Karleigh Ousley who is working with COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Connecticut was sent masks. Fussier sent a couple of masks to her parents in Vienna, Warren and Mary Joyce Helton. Her relative, LeAnn Kloeppel of Vienna, is making masks also.

She and the other masks makers have begun making a pocket inside of the masks so the N95 Surgical Masks can fit inside the fabric ones to extended the life of the much in demand N95 masks. These are needed and used by health care workers, people who are on the front line in the fight to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

One person sent her a thank you note on the group’s Facebook page. It said, “Lorie, I received the face shields a couple of days ago and I can’t thank you enough! They will go to excellent use at Olathe Medical Center Cancer care center and they couldn’t be more thrilled. God has blessed me by meeting you through sweet Karie! Much love and appreciation!” She thanked the Friends of Dorcas for making them.

Project brings hope

Fussner said if she didn’t have this mask-making/management of the project going, she would be so nervous about the coronavirus pandemic. “It gives me hope to help others and bring a positive light to others. It’s a morale booster,” she said. It also has helped to keep her sane.

Her family has taken the coronavirus seriously and they are doing the best they can. But the virus is always there, in the back of their minds. She avoids contact with people and is washing her hands and staying home, doing her best.

She almost stopped making the masks when someone told her they didn’t work and were not as protective as the N95 masks were. But a friend told her she was making a difference and people wanted and needed these masks. The friend encouraged her to keep doing it and she did. Now they are using the sewn masks with the N95 masks for health care workers.

People told her the masks give them some peace of mind. “You won’t believe how happy they have made me.” The masks show up on her front porch. She can tell who has made them by the fabric and by the sewing. They all have learned to adapt to the changes in their project, such as when they had trouble getting elastic so they began using potholder loops. It’s a group of helpful, innovative stitchers who want to help people during this time of crisis.

This ministry for her and for other people began in early March and it continues to go strong. “God gave us the ability to do what we can to help. I never expected all of this to happen.”