The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
How four women grew a network of mask-makers
“Doris said to me, ‘I have an idea; we should make masks. The funny thing is, Doris doesn’t even sew.”
Sarah Moskowitz, volunteer coordinator and spiritual leader, The Towers at Tower Lane
Sarah Moskowitz recalled that first “scary time” last March when COVID-19 had just arrived in Connecticut and was spreading quickly, prompting medical experts to sound the alarm for us to wear protective masks.
But masks were not easy to find.
“We decided: ‘You know what, we need to take action,’” said Moskowitz, the volunteer coordinator and spiritual leader at The Towers at Tower Lane, an apartment and assisted living community in New Haven.
She had received a phone call from somebody she didn’t know: Doris Zelinsky. She is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and was a member of the first Yale class to include women; she graduated in 1971. Zelinsky had gone on to work for Marvin and Murray Lender at their famous bagel company.
“Doris said to me, ‘I have an idea; we should make masks,’” Moskowitz recalled. “The funny thing is, Doris doesn’t even sew.”
But Zelinsky does know how to recruit and mobilize volunteers. She found two like-minded women, Linda Schultz and Trish Loving, and they began to form a network of mask-makers. They called themselves the Mask Creator Volunteers.
I found out about them after I mentioned in a column I had lost my mask with a New York Yankees pattern. Zelinsky got in touch with me right away.
Her email said, “We are four women who have coordinated 38 home-based volunteers, sewing pocket masks for first-line municipal workers and needy populations.
Since April we have sewn and distributed nearly 2,500 masks. We will keep going until this need is extinguished.”
Zelinsky added, “When we read about you losing your beloved Yankees mask, we sewed and sent a mask to you. We had enough Yankees material on hand for your mask because when we made masks for the New Haven Police Department, we learned that our chief (Otoniel Reyes), like you, roots for this team. We made him two customized masks, one for him to wear and one to wash, as he and his police teams help us all stay safe during this COVIDchallenged year.”
Zelinsky also told me: “Our pocket masks are being worn by
our area communities’ police, fire, EMT, parks and recreation, traffic, public works and sanitation crews, plus residents and staff in many congregate communities, including The Towers at Tower Lane, Fellowship Hall, the Southbury Training School (cats and dogs patterns for them), the Connecticut Mental Health Center, the Yale labs, food pantry and free meal volunteers and recipients, IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services), foster care youth, library workers and homebound Holocaust survivors. You and your new Yankee mask are in good company!”
Yes, I did receive that mask, and a second one as well, because Zelinsky sent one to my home
and another to my office. (Our staff is working remotely but I was able to pick up the second one in our lobby.) They are beautiful!
When I thanked Zelinsky, she told me they need more homebased volunteers “to help our community ride through this challenge.” She encouraged me to enjoy my Yankee masks and added, “When this pandemic gets into our rear view mirrors, they will be quaint artifacts you will be able to store as mementos, and not keep track of as required face clothing.”
Realizing the mask creators deserve some attention and need reinforcements, I got back in touch with Zelinsky and asked how I could publicize their efforts. She set me up with Moskowitz and the two of us met last Wednesday afternoon at the new gazebo in the courtyard at The Towers.
Moskowitz was wearing a mask adorned with a kind of bubbles pattern. I of course was wearing my Yankees mask.
The weather was bitterly cold and windy, so I was eyeing the colorful blankets Moskowitz had brought, along with the equally colorful masks for the photo assignment.
She explained that the maskand blanket-making programs go hand in hand. The blankets are made by a knitting and crocheting group at The Towers.
“We just donated close to 200 hand-made blankets to victims of domestic violence and homeless in New Haven,” Moskowitz said. “The two programs go together because we have distributed masks and blankets to police in New Haven County. The masks were for the officers and the blankets are to keep in their cruisers for anyone in need.”
“This is their passion,” Moskowitz said of the blanket knitters. Zelinsky calls them “the Tower knitting mavens.”
As for the masks, Moskowitz said, “We have given one to every resident of The Towers (330 people) and to Towers employees.”
She showed me that these
masks have pockets in which you can insert a second disposable mask for another layer of protection. The masks also have a small piece of metal that clips to your nose.
“Our initial goal was to make 2,200 masks,” Moskowitz said. “We’re now at 2,500. We’re going for 3,000.”
The 38 volunteers include just 15 sewers; the others cut and buy the fabric. “Our biggest need is sewers with sewing machines,” she said. “We will provide everything, even the thread.” (Contact Moskowitz at sarah@towerlane.org or 203-772-1816, ext. 410.)
“It’s been very rewarding,” she said. “I love working with these people. We are four Jewish women who did not know each other before COVID. And because of COVID we have not yet met all together in person. We meet weekly on Zoom and can’t wait for the day when we can be together.”
Gustave Keach-Longo, president and CEO of The Towers at Tower Lane, sent me a statement: “The Towers is so grateful to Doris Zelinsky for her leadership initiating this critical project and for ensuring its success. We’re proud of Sarah Moskowitz, our volunteer coordinator, for all her hard work partnering on the project. Seeing the benefit to our community of seniors, staff and the broader community of front-line workers and many others has been gratifying. We are all inspired by and thankful for Doris’ work.”
Moskowitz told me, “I’m from a long line of doers and volunteers.” She served with the Peace Corps in Guatemala; her work involved knitting and crocheting with Guatemalans in the rain forest.
Moskowitz pulled out one of the cloth bags made for the 38 volunteers. The message on the bag quotes Japanese poet Ryunosuke Satoro: “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
“We’re not stopping,” Moskowitz said. “There’s still a need, with this uptick in COVID cases.”
Late last week I received a follow-up email message from Zelinsky: “With the fabulous vaccine news, the end of the fear is in sight. We volunteers will continue to help, keeping our firstline workers and those in need amply masked. Working together, we can ensure that we will ride out these remaining months of COVID challenge as healthy as New Haven can.”