After getting many requests, Fabric Mask Response Team is churning out masks for local medical professionals

MARION - On Mar. 26, Mabel Hayes of Marion put out a call via Facebook, inviting people to join her team.

Eight days later, the Fabric Mask Response Team has more than 50 members and is working together like a major league baseball team intent on winning the World Series.

However, the win this team is after is much more important.

In a response to multiple requests from area health care facilities, this team is making cloth face masks to help fill the critical shortage caused by the global pandemic.

"Our goal is to complete a minimum of 5,000 masks in the next two weeks," wrote Hayes in an initial Facebook post.

Hayes said the group now has over 30 volunteers working to fill the need.

"I hope to have three times that many by this time next week," she said. "With 100 people sewing masks, if each volunteer completed 10 kits with 12 masks per kit, we could supply over 12,000 masks."

Hayes said she already has requests for 3,000 masks from facilities in Franklin, Williamson, and Jackson counties.

There are tasks for anyone who would like to join the team.

Retired teacher Kathy Rushing is spending her shelter in place time at her sewing machine, churning out masks for the project.

There are number of jobs for volunteers who can't sew.

Hayes needs people to pick and deliver masks and materials, like Kerri Price, who responded to a Facebook plea for help.

"I don't sew," she wrote, "but I am off work for a few days and I have a teenage son who needs to get some hours behind the wheel before he can get his driver's license."

Hayes also needs people like Jean Wise of Marion who works assembling the kits with the materials needed to make the masks.

Age is no factor in recruiting volunteers, either. In Carbondale, 90s-something Virginia Howerton spends part of her time standing at her ironing board, pressing fabric before it is cut into masks.

In Marion, 15-year-old Audrey Childers is making use of her time out of the classroom, cutting materials into the correct proportions to be placed in the kits.

Geography isn't a factor, either.

Joyce Schilly is a shut-in who lives in Bonne Terre, Missouri. She has already sewn 80 masks plans to send another 150 more to her sister Marilyn Schild in Marion to contribute to the project.

"It takes a village, for sure," said Hayes.

All the work is done with no face-to-face contact.

"We have outdoor facilities for dropping off and picking up supplies," said Hayes. "Anything delivered to volunteers is left at their doors."

Supplies and kits are picked up from an outdoor receptacle in the gazebo at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marion. Completed masks can be dropped off there in another receptacle.

As the pandemic reaches its peak, medical professionals and caregivers will need more and more masks.

Hayes is hoping the Fabric Mask Response Team can help meet the demands.

"We still need help," she said. "You can make a difference."

For more information on how you can help the Fabric Mask Response Team, visit the Facebook page or message Mabel Ditch Hayes.