Cathleen Fisher and Marissa Strohlein are doing their part to help protect front-line workers and the public at large from the coronavirus.

As two of the four organizers for the Carbon County Has You Covered Facebook Group, Fisher and Strohlein began a mask-making program in mid-March when the demand was high and the supply was low.

“I just wanted to help the cause,” Fisher said. “When nurses and health care workers were wearing bandannas, our group got formed to offer masks with better protection.”

Fisher estimates that she has made about 300 masks and believes her group of a few dozen volunteers has produced nearly 1,000 total masks so far.

Strohlein, a founding member of the Facebook Group, spends hours delivering masks to health centers that include St. Luke’s Lehighton Campus, the Urgent Care Center in Jim Thorpe, and various police and fire departments and EMT locations in the area. Deliveries also go out to pharmacies and borough offices and other places that have personnel who have direct contact with the public.

Strohlein said they are also targeting those who are most at risk of infection.

“I do graphic design, marketing, and whatever else needs to be done to get as many masks as we can out to people, but especially to our senior citizens. We have issued 200 masks to them so far.”

Making the masks, in alliance with the Lehigh Valley Mask Force, involves a fairly sophisticated process that is patterned after those used by the Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s University Health Network.

“We start with tightly woven cotton fabric,” Fisher said. “The fabric is mostly donated and we also were able to purchase material from a gift card donated by Walmart in Lehighton.”

The material is then cut to adult and child sizes and washed to shrink it further. After ironing the fabric, ear saver bands are attached. Some are made from crocheted yarn sewn on with buttons and others are created from plastic designed from a 3D printer.

“On some masks I add pockets for filters and for others I attach nose wires made from pipe cleaners,” Fisher said.

Fabric colors are random. Popular prints include cats and Batman patterns.

The entire process may be tedious and time consuming and takes Fisher two days of work to make batches of 25 masks, but she finds another benefit than the obvious one of helping to keep people safe.

“I make the masks from my home,” said Fisher, who has lived in Jim Thorpe with her husband and three young children for the past three years. “Being stuck in the house every day with three kids, this helps me cope,” she added with a laugh.

Fisher was looking for a job when the pandemic broke out. She has 15 years of experience in laboratory virus testing in New York, so she’s hoping something in her related field will soon turn up.

Strohlein, also from Jim Thorpe and whose family owns the Big Creek Vineyards in Kunkletown, volunteers at the West End food pantry in Kunkletown, where the need for aid in Monroe and Carbon counties has risen from 275 to over 400 families since the pandemic began.

“People have run out of money and will say, ‘Who am I to ask for help?’ We serve everyone with calmness and without judgment,” she said.

Regarding a willingness to take credit for volunteering her time and effort to help others during this health crisis, Strohlein said, “I am not special. I am humbled when I see the tireless efforts the volunteers give at the food pantry and within our Facebook Group.”

Fisher offered her response. “I had been looking for a job and now I’m home like everyone else, so I’m able to help out.”

Strohlein said a misconception about volunteerism is that they are usually people with “idle hands” and a lot of free time. Not so, she explained. They have busy lives like everyone else.

“During difficult times like these, many people will see a need for helping others, but say, ‘Somebody should do something about that.’?”

Fortunately for the people of Carbon and Monroe counties and for the front-line workers who risk their own lives to help save others, Cathleen Fisher, Marissa Strohlein and their associates are “somebodies” who are dedicating time and effort during this local, national and worldwide crisis.

Want to help?

https://facebook.com/CarbonHYC

Email: marissa.strohlein@gmail.com

Needs:

- volunteers to sew masks or crochet ear savers

- canvas, flannel, & quilting fabric (1 yard or more)

- 1/8” elastic

- thread

- local businesses willing to be drop off or pick up locations