Fairfield group delivers masks to local schools

FAIRFIELD – A group of Fairfield mask makers has donated more than 800 cloth masks to the Fairfield Community School District and Maharishi School.

The bulk of those, 758, will go to the public school, and specifically to students in the district's two elementary schools.

About half of those, 375, will go to the 3- to 6-year-olds at Washington Elementary School, and 383 will go to the students in second through fourth grades at Pence Elementary school. Fifty masks will go to Maharishi School.

Two representatives of the group, Lisa Cohen and Barbie Harshbarger, delivered the masks to the Fairfield Community School District's central office Wednesday. Diane Rosenberg, one of the founders of the sewing group and one of its leaders, could not attend.

Thirty-one members of the community donated their time to the project, which involved not just sewing the masks but delivering them, cutting the fabric, and developing a firm and safe plastic wire around the nose. Cohen said a lot of 'research and development” went into the masks, which were made small to fit comfortably on a child's face. She said a few children, such as School Superintendent Laurie Noll's granddaughter Katharine Mitchell, tested eight prototypes of various styles and sizes.

Debi Plum, a member of the sewing group and president the district's school board, said some of the prototypes had wires around the nose, some did not, some were the pleated rectangular style and others were curved. She said that getting feedback from a few youngsters helped the sewing group decide which masks to mass produce. For instance, the group learned that kids appreciate having a wire around the nose because their noses are small and the mask can easily slip off. The nose piece helps those students with glasses because it stops the glasses from fogging.

Cohen said the early prototypes included a metallic wire, but the group worried they would poke out of the fabric and create a safety hazard. To solve the problem, the wires were dipped in a plastic coating to make them softer.

Harshberger said the early trials taught the group that they needed more elastic on each side, 10 inches instead of eight or nine, for the mask to feel comfortable.

The group sought to make masks for young children because the small masks they need are in short supply. Masks for middle schoolers and high schoolers are easier to find.

Plum said the group's original goal was to sew 600 masks.

'It blows me away to have exceeded that goal,” Plum said. 'Holding a little mask in your hand and knowing who you're making it for is motivating.”

The group, which can be found on Facebook under the name 'Sewing Masks and Gowns – the War Effort,” has sewn and donated more than 3,200 masks, according to Harshberger.

The group donated 150 gowns to the Jefferson County Health Center, which was the main recipient of masks in the early stage of the pandemic. After making masks for the hospital, the group turned its efforts toward making them for nursing homes, and most recently for school children.