(Editor’s note: This week, the Monitor will publish a series of stories exploring how students of all ages are staying engaged with the community while learning from home.)
Courtney Renaud was concerned, imagining her grandparents making visits to the grocery store and other places in the community without masks to wear.
Renaud, an eighth-grader at Rundlett Middle School, decided to get crafty: Using her grandmother’s sewing machine and referencing Centers for Disease Control guidelines, she stitched a set of patterned masks.
She picked special materials she knew her grandparents would love – for two masks, she used New England Patriots-themed fabric. For one grandmother, she made a green mask – her grandmother’s favorite color. Her other grandfather got a teal mask with celestial patterns to represent his affection for astronomy and outer space.
“I love doing arts and crafts projects, and I wanted to do something to help,” she said.
After she finished, her mom, Tracy, who teaches at Rundlett, posted photos of her working on the masks on Facebook. Soon, other family members and friends were asking for masks.
The more Renaud made, the more people asked. Within 2½ weeks, Renaud had made more than 150. She completed her 300th mask last week.
She’s made masks for classmates, teachers and complete strangers. She and her family travel around the city and beyond, delivering them in mailboxes. A few masks were even sent to relatives in Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.
“After schoolwork is done for the day, we just get to go outside and ride around delivering masks. It’s nice to leave the house,” she said. “Some people have been very thankful, and it’s made me feel good about making them.”
Renaud said it isn’t how she imagined spending the spring of her eighth-grade year but that the experience has been unique and rewarding.
Renaud, like many sewers of homemade masks, ran into trouble finding elastic material, which the CDC recommends, online. Renaud found some material in her craft supplies used to make potholders, which has done the trick nicely. She made a video to show people how to adjust the fit of the ties, which all come in one size.
“They are so much more comfortable and easy to use,” Renaud said.
When Renaud drops off masks, she wears her own – a red Patriots one – and gloves. The recipients are always appreciative, she said.
“Some people go to their porches and say ‘Thank you,’ but also, a bunch of people have asked if I’m taking money for them,” she said.
Renaud is not taking money. She said the project is about helping the community stay healthy – she doesn’t want anything in return.
Instead, her mother, Tracy, has been telling grateful recipients that Renaud enjoys receiving letters in the mail – and people have been sending them, along with little gifts.
Someone sent a big box of soft pretzels in the mail, another sent a package of fabric for more masks. People have sent money anyway, and Renaud said her family has been putting it aside with plans to donate it. They haven’t selected a cause yet.
“It definitely makes you realize how important the community is in times like this,” Renaud. “Everyone is supporting each other.”