Sigourney women leading pack on sewing more than 650 masks for local essential workers

SIGOURNEY - Essential workers in Sigourney have homemade masks to help protect them from COVID-19 thanks to local resident Annette Clarahan who began sewing masks. What started as a project for her and her mother has become a townwide effort and more than 650 masks have been made and distributed so far.

'When I watched the news and they showed shortage in New York City and they were talking about PPE (personal protective equipment) for the rest of the country, I looked at my mom and said, ‘We need to sew. We need to make some of these masks for here.'” she said.

With news reports surfacing of people making masks to be sent to Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Clarahan decided this was her chance to make a difference locally.

'I was really interested in getting some for our community for our essential workers,” she said.

What became a townwide effort all began with a Facebook post Clarahan put up, asking for people who knew how to sew to join in the effort. She soon contacted representatives at the Keokuk County Health Center about donating the masks.

To minimize the amount of people coming into the hospital, Clarahan's front yard became the drop-off spot for donations of supplies and completed masks.

'It has been amazing how many people have donated. People have brought fabric and all the supplies we've needed. Its been amazing to watch what small town Iowa can come up with and donate in a time of need like this,” she said. 'I'm in awe.”

Clarahan sews for fun and her mother regularly quilts. The pair had not had much time to sew together but since mid-March, she has only taken one night off, Easter Sunday, and has sewed every night since.

The masks have gone to those in the medical field, grocers, gas station attendants and the at-risk adults in the community.

Clarahan said she never dreamed she would have a team of 15 sewers and countless donations helping to make more than 650 masks so far, but that's just shows the compassion of small-town Iowa.

'It kind of grew and kept snowballing but it was great. It was amazing. I could not be more proud to live in small town Iowa, especially right now. I feel like I'm always proud, but I'm especially proud of our community because they stepped up,” she said.

The town of Sigourney has just over 2,000 residents and Clarahan is well on her way to leading a team of producing so many masks they could cover more than 30 percent of the population so far. It may be a small effort, she said, but she and the other residents of town are committed to sewing until there is no longer a need.

'I think for me and for several others I've talked with, it just helps. It's something that we can do in our spare time that helps with my own anxiety to know that it's a way we can give back and feel like we're helping even though it might not be a great big thing compared to what they're doing, but I feel like this is a small thing we can do to protect our essential workers because we need them more than ever right now,” she said. 'This is just a small thing we can do to help keep them safer.”