Newsroom using ‘Foss masks’
ANN M. AUGHERTON | CATHOLIC HERALD
Face masks, dubbed “Foss masks,” are a welcome arrival in this week’s mail. Catholic Herald columnist Elizabeth Foss lovingly made masks for some of the newsroom staff to keep them safe. In her most recent column, she said, “Sewing masks offers me plenty of time to think and pray.”
Sewing project will benefit Catholic Charities
COURTESY
Therese Wittkoski, a parishioner of St. Theresa in
Ashburn, is sewing nearly 20 masks per week for the Arlington Diocese Council of Catholic Women’s mask-making effort.
Mel Cameron, who serves on the board of the diocesan Council of Catholic Women, is coordinating a mask-making effort to benefit Catholic Charities. The goal is to make up to 1,000 masks for the diocese; currently the group is focused on making 200 masks for Christ House in Alexandria and the Catholic Charities Manassas food warehouse.
Cameron’s team of six seamstresses have completed 105 masks so far, and volunteers from the Edward Douglass White Knights of Columbus Council in Arlington are facilitating delivery of materials and finished masks.
How to help
If you would like to volunteer to be a seamstress, can cut fabric for kits, or are able to donate light- or medium-weight fusible interfacing or twill tape ribbon, email Mel Cameron at [email protected] or go to adccw.org.
Marymount university students make ‘fashion masks’
COURTESY
This protective face mask was made by students in Marymount University’s fashion design and merchandising program in Arlington.
Around 120 protective “fashion masks,” created by William Allen, a faculty member at Marymount University in Arlington, and students in Marymount’s fashion design and merchandising program, were delivered to the Arlington Free Clinic earlier this month.
The Arlington Free Clinic provides free health care to low-income, uninsured Arlington County adults. The masks, made for patients, volunteers, staff and visitors at the clinic, contain a nonwoven polypropylene filter inside and are washable and reversible.
According to Allen, the masks are about as protective as surgical masks, which have an 89 percent protective barrier against bacteria and small particles.
