In a news cycle that can feel endlessly distressing, good news can sometimes come in the form of people looking out for one another in their communities. One example comes from Durant, Oklahoma, where one woman gave away more than 4,500 face masks from her porch, as reported by local outlet KXII. What inspired this venture? According to Katrina Rawls-Daniels, her mother realized she’d seen essential workers, like supermarket employees, without masks during the ongoing global pandemic, and both mother and daughter wanted to help.
“As long as people are willing to donate material and as long as people are willing to come get free masks I’ll keep making them,” Rawls-Daniels—who says she has gone from not knowing how to sew to making about 60 masks per day—told the outlet.
Rawls-Daniels explained that she’s been producing masks thanks to fabric donations from people in her community. Her current system allows people to take up to four free masks at a time. The available masks are hung from a clothesline outside of her home.
Rawls-Daniels told the outlet she’s “just as stressed out as everybody else,” but that making masks for her community helps her “feel a little bit like I’m in control, like I have something I can do to help.” She told the outlet that her clothesline of masks has only been empty a few days since she started her donation venture back in April.
This heartwarming story might remind you of a Kentucky college student Daily Kos covered back in early April, who got national attention for creating free face masks for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Because masks cover our mouths, it can be an access barrier for people who practice speech and lipreading, as well as American Sign Language (ASL), so creating masks that come with a plastic shield helps provide more inclusive protection.
Of course, if Donald Trump’s administration worked to get free, safe, and reusable masks to everyone, the burden wouldn’t fall on local people to protect one another. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, recently unveiled a bill to provide every single person in the United States with three free, washable, and safe face masks as the pandemic rages on, including additional surgical and N-95 masks for healthcare workers.
Ensuring that people can access effective face masks is especially important as we see so many people returning to school (including some college campuses and residence halls)—and how many students and teachers have tested positive for the virus already.