OLDS — After hearing there was a shortage of face masks needed in the pevention of COVID-19 in mid March, Olds resident Taunya Shewciw made a couple, then offered them to friends via social media.
Little did she know where that would lead.
Now, six weeks later or so, Shewciw figures she’s made about 300 face masks and sent some as far away as Vancouver and Saskatoon.
“I think my boyfriend and family are pretty sick of me presenting masks and going like, ‘look at this one,’ and they’re like, ‘great, another one,’” she says with a laugh.
Shewciw joined the Million Mask Challenge on Facebook, interacting with mask makers around the world. They share challenges and ideas.
“This community (is) all over the world, linked by social media with a common cause, so it’s really cool,” she says.
Shewciw, an administrative coordinator for Olds Institute, makes the masks around her work hours -- like most people right now, she’s working from home. She figures she spends more than four hours a day on that.
Over time, she has winnowed her styles down to three main ones -- two with elastic to hook around the ears and one with cloth ties for those who find that the area around their ears starts to hurt after wearing elastic for a long time.
They have wire in the nose area so they’ll fit well on the face and pockets for filters for added protection.
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However, Shewciw doesn’t provide the filters. She leaves that up to those who want them so they’ll obtain the filter they prefer.
“I’m not an immunology expert or a virologist or an epidemiologist – none of those. So I’m definitely not going to make any recommendations other than educate yourself as best as you can,” she says.
Shewciw makes the masks out of quilted cotton because it’s a tight weave, yet breathable.
Initially, she used material she had in her home.
“I started with what I had on hand, because I’ve sewn for a long time. So I had one of those embarrassing stashes that sewers talk about, where they have a ton of fabric that sits in the closet,” she says.
After a while, she learned that Craig’s Store in Olds was open, so she’s been obtaining material from there.
Shewciw said she has no idea how much it’s cost her to make all those face masks but that's not a concern. She’s been happy to do it.
“I have not tabulated that because I don’t actually want to know,” she says with a laugh. It’s definitely not a money-making endeavour, although I have sold some of them.
“It’s cost me more than I care to admit, but I’m also, like, how lucky am I that I can do this and afford to do it?”
The one issue Shewciw is running into now is that elastic is becoming a scarce commodity in the time of COVID-19. Due to its scarcity, she describes it as “basically the new hand sanitizer.”
“I have a tiny stash of elastic left and then once that’s gone, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she says.
One option she’s seen online is to make “T-shirt rope” from cut-up T-shirts.
