By Barbara Sheehan

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), face covers will be part of the new normal for the foreseeable future.  The June 12^th update from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health advises us that, though we have moved to the yellow phase, “residents are advised that we are ‘safer at home’ and should leave only to engage in essential activities.”  Once we do leave home, Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley asks residents to: “wear masks, observe social distancing, and wash your hands.”

How are local residents and businesses dealing with the need to wear masks when they leave the house? We asked several local people how they go about obtaining, wearing, and maintaining this latest essential accessory.

As all but essential businesses closed down in March 2020, there were not many masks or other personal protection equipment (PPE’s) available, and those that were available were directed to frontline health care workers and first responders. This sparked the initiative of individuals making their own masks and making them for others.

Peter Appelbaum, East Mount Airy resident and professor of education at Arcadia University, took this crisis as an opportunity to learn to sew.  

“Early on, I didn’t think there were any masks to buy,” he said. “I thought we had to make them for ourselves.” 

It wasn’t an easy process. 

“I was having a lot of problems the first time because I didn't know how to use a sewing machine,”: he said.

The dilemma gave him a new connection with his daughter, Sophia, who is currently living in Tokyo, but left her sewing machine behind.  He used Facetime to chat with Sophia, “as I held the phone to show her the machine up close, she helped me learn how to use the machine -- to thread the needle when it broke, to wind a new bobbin, and so on.”

Fortunately, his daughter had also left behind an assortment of fun fabrics, elastic and plenty of thread.  He consulted YouTube to make pleated rectangular masks with elastic loops, sometimes with extended elastic to wrap around the head.

Necessity is the mother of invention and in our community it provided new ways to find purposeful activities while under quarantine. Joyce Mercer, East Oak Lane resident, is an order entry clerk, artist and owner of the small business, Jewelry With Me. 

Once masks became more plentiful, Mercer found ways to support other small business entrepreneurs. She and her daughter Jade, a college student, purchase their masks from small businesses they found on Etsy and Instagram.  They prefer the masks they got from a shop called Pure Soul Inspirations.

 “Her masks go behind the ears and are three layers of fabric with nose wire and clinches at the chin and cheeks.”   

Chestnut Hill resident Tamar Chansky, a psychologist and author of several books about overcoming anxiety, responded by creating an info graphic with her husband Phil Stern. The graphic urges Chestnut Hill residents to “mask up” and equates “Wearing = Caring.”

“We have been inspired to help change the narrative about masks to something friendly and caring for each other rather than something scary,” Chansky said.

They are working on making free decals for posting in local windows.

Beth Miley, owner of Villavillekula on Germantown Avenue, sells handmade children’s clothing and employs three seamstresses. In the early weeks of the shutdown, she hired her seamstresses and put out a call to others to make masks for front line workers.  They made thousands. She spent her time coordinating between mask makers and the hospitals, homeless shelters, and nursing homes.   Once masks became more available for purchase, her staff made masks to sell to the public.

“I wanted to make them more playful,” she said. “We came up with 100 designs for kids and 100 different designs for adults.”

The masks are available for purchase online or in person (she will even deliver curbside) and most cost only $10 each. She considers mask-making more of a mission than a business endeavor.

“I’m doing this to protect you,” she said. “If I can make it playful, please protect me.”

If buying local is your priority, there are many options for purchasing masks now in Chestnut Hill.  In addition to Villavillekula, the following shops have masks for sale: Bohemian Pink, Threadwell Monograms, Windfall Gallery, Serendipity, Chestnut Hill Sports, El Quetzal, Weavers Way Food Coop, Killian Hardware, Chestnut Hill Cleaners, and Tailored Home. Acme and CVS also carry surgical-type masks.

Weaver Way sells masks with their logo imprinted for $7.00 each, purchased from Yarrington Mills in Hatboro, a manufacturer of sports apparel.  “

We buy local, not just for our food,” said general manager Jon Roesser. 

The masks are made of a polyester fabric weave that does a better job of trapping respiratory droplets.  All staff members are required to wear them for their whole shift, so these masks need to be comfortable.

As for his personal practice, “I use a standard issue Weavers Way mask,” Roesser said. “I pretty much wear my mask from the moment I get to work- to the moment I get in my car to go home.”

When do folks wear the mask?  

 “I wear a mask always when I go inside a store, which is rare. I only go inside a supermarket once per week and I’m usually there 20 minutes,” said Kit McGovern, Oreland resident and retired Social Security claims specialist.

Like most respondents, she also wears the mask when she is outside and around other people.  

Catherine Browne, a special education teacher from Chestnut Hill, reports the same, but admits that “on the last really humid day it was hard to wear the mask,” and she is nervous about wearing it outside this summer.  

“I wear it when I go to play outside with my neighbors, and when I go to the store,” said Catherine’s daughter Lucy, a 4^th grade student at Our Mother of Consolation School. 

“My dogs get very excited whenever I pick up a mask because they know it means we are going outside!” said Karen Rile, Chestnut Hill writer, college instructor and editor. “My spouse is a physician, so we have to assume we could be pre-symptomatic even though we have no symptoms.”

What about the care and maintenance of our masks?

“I have a special drawer for my mask collection and throw them in the wash on gentle cycle every couple of days and air dry them,” said Megan Ambros De Nasciemento, a Mount Airy yoga instructor. 

Beth Miley throws hers in the wash after each wear and keeps seven available for use.  Kit McGovern also irons the mask, “because I heard it destroys the virus.”  Joyce Mercer said “we have a lot of them and keep them in the car.  We wash them when we wash our clothes.”

“I wear the mask for other people,” said McGovern. “I don’t feel like it is that protective for me, but I feel like I should try to protect other people.”

Masking ourselves for the virus is sure to evolve over the next few months.  Here’s to our best face-covering practices while we protect our own health and those of our neighbors. 

Barbara Sheehan works as a senior grants management specialist for a cancer research center and lives in Chestnut Hill. During the quarantine, she has stayed sane by making masks for friends and family.