Archive: Around Town

A blue collection box appeared in the foyer of the Lansing Town Hall Tuesday.  The box is part of an effort to provide essential workers with face masks to protect them from COVID-19, especially when there is a shortage of commercial face masks due to the pandemic.  So Sew Many volunteers are sewing the masks at home, and the informal team organizing the effort placed the collection boxes at around ten locations around Tompkins County.

"The idea of the blue box is that they need people to make masks, and then put them in a blue box," said Lansing Town Clerk Debbie Munson at Wednesday's Town Board meeting. "The masks that are going in there are meant for employers to hand out to their employees, because that's mandatory now that they have to wear masksand mandatory that the employers have to provide them. The masks are going to Angelo's Dry Cleaners downtown to make sure they are completely clean, and the people who come in contact with the public the most are being moved to the top of the list to receive them."

Volunteers are asked to contribute masks of any pattern. The only requirement is that they be washable.  Sewers don't have to sign up or join an organization.  Anyone may contribute masks, sealed in individual plastic sandwich bags to keep them clean.

"Since many of these volunteer sewers are themselves in the vulnerable population, and rely on others to deliver their masks once sewn, the convenience and safety of drop off is important. Other volunteers will be needed to unlock the boxes and deliver the masks safely to Angelo Dry Cleaner, which is donating laundering and heat sanitizing to the community effort," the So Sew3 Many Web site says.

As of this week senior living centers, Foodnet Meals on Wheels, Hospicare, and Tompkins County Area Transit (TCAT) have received masks from the volunteer effort.  The blue box in the Town Hall foyer is accessible 24/7 for sewers who want to drop off the masks they have made.

v16i16