Cheri Taglauer

FAIRFIELD - When the pandemic closed schools in mid-March, Fairfield Middle School custodian Cheri Taglauer had nowhere to go.

No one was allowed to enter any school building, so she was laid off. But she found a hobby that kept her busy night and day for months: making masks. The Jefferson County Health Center needed masks for its staff, and Taglauer answered the call.

For three solid weeks she worked 10- to 12-hour days making masks, first for the health center and then for anyone who needed them. She estimates she's made more than 900 masks this year, on top of 300 skull caps and 25 gowns.

'My husband thought I was crazy,” Taglauer said. 'But we were quarantined, and had nothing else to do.”

Taglauer said she was motivated to put so much effort into the masks because the need was so great. She sits down at her sewing machine, puts on a book on tape, and gets so lost in the story she forgets all about the sewing.

'My husband is like, ‘Are you coming to bed yet?' and I say, ‘I need to do five more masks,'” Taglauer said.

It takes Taglauer 20 minutes to make a mask. She's able to churn out so many masks because she has a background in mass production. She once worked for Boyt Luggage in Osceola where she sewed soft-sided luggage eight hours a day. Even still, she admits her hands begin to hurt after 12 hours on the sewing machine. Knowing she's making a difference in people's lives gives her the adrenaline to plow through the pain and fatigue.

Taglauer is quick to credit others for her successful mask-making operation, such as her husband, Matthew, and mother, Edith Meyers, who cut fabric for her. Taglauer won't accept payment for her masks, but she does take donated fabric, elastic and other materials.

– Andy Hallman