Club members made and donated masks.
Linda Rowe
PebbleCreek (PC) Quilters Club members continue to respond to requests for face coverings. So far, over 5,100 masks have been made and given to hospitals, hospice, Center Treatment Center of America, and members of the PebbleCreek community. Member Debbie Arsenault, an ICU nurse at Abrazo, and her husband have regularly been distributing a portion of these masks to PC residents. Despite the thousands made, community service chair, Patsy Wagner, reports she gets at least two requests per day for more masks. The advantage of cloth masks is that they are washable. Some models also provide for the addition of disposable filters, increasing the effectiveness of the mask.
Some club members are really going above and beyond to respond to special needs and requests. Member Dona Thompson and a friend, Dee Carbonell, teamed up to make a special mask for their friend, Shannon Tyree. Shannon has a hearing impairment and uses lip reading to assist her in communicating with others. Her situation was made worse by being unable to read lips due to others wearing masks. Cashiers assume everyone can hear and when Shannon did not respond to a question, while at the store, it led to a frustrating situation. Per Shannon’s request, Dona sewed the mask and Dee embroidered the phrase “Hard of Hearing” on the mask. Shannon reports this has made a big difference for her. After seeing Shannon’s posting regarding this on social media, Channel 12 did a feature. You can see it at www.shorturl.at/brtVY.
Another PC Quilters Club member, Lola Hagen, made 38 masks for The General WildFire organization. This is a group of wildfire fighters working in Arizona and Washington state. A group leader contacted Lola and indicated he was trying to make sure his crew was safe and wondered if she could help. There are 20 members who work on an on-call basis to fight wildfires. While he requested 20, Lola made 38 masks to ensure that back-ups were available.
Additional charity work includes 50 baby blankets for Abrazo West Hospital, 25 lap quilts, and 18 dog beds.