WANTING TO HELP
Seamstress sewing masks for health care workers
SOUTH COVENTRY » By now, most of us have heard of the critical shortage of medical masks for health care workers to use in the battle against coronavirus.
But Kate Kircher and her husband Bud, both 73, decided to do something about it.
A lifelong seamstress taught by her mother, who had six children, Kircher has made clothes, gifts, quilts and other sewn items as long as Laura Kane can remember.
Kane is Kircher’s daughter and a local nurse.
Kane’s brother and sister-in-law are respiratory experts in Maryland and there is also an emergency room nurse in the family, so Kircher is deeply aware of the need for masks to protect against the spread of the virus.
Kircher “was always making something with her hands. She tried to teach me, but I guess I don’t have the gift,” Kane said with a laugh.
“For years, I tried to convince her to sell her work at craft shows. The things she makes are so beautiful, but she is very generous and she just gives them away,” Kane said.
Now Kircher is giving away the masks that she is making, with assistance, for the first time, from her husband Bud.
“It’s hysterical that she has my father involved. He has never done anything like this before,” said Kane.
“He’s working on the patterns while I wash all
“I enjoy taking a very small part in all the help that’s needed out there.”
— Kate Kircher, seamstress
the material and put it together,” Kircher said matter-of-factly Monday during a break from her sewing. “He wants to help as much as I do.
“I enjoy taking a very small part in all the help that’s needed out there. I knew there was a reason I kept all this material.”
Kircher said she is also inspired by all the stories of people trying to help.
“This crisis has brought a lot of good things out in people. Of course, I hate that people are suffering, but this is a good lesson for
us all to learn — we have to pay attention to science,” Kircher said.
The science says the masks may help, but the national shortage is of a particular type of mask called N95, which fits more tightly over the mouth and nose and prevents more fluid penetration than regular surgical masks, like the type Kircher is making.
The federal government is now mulling whether to release stockpiled N95 masks that have exceeded their manufacturer-designated shelf life.
According to the Food and Drug Administration: “While a surgical mask may be effective in blocking splashes and large-particle