HS shop owner takes on task of making coronavirus masks
With Gov. Asa Hutchinson and federal officials asking the public to wear masks when they can’t socially distance in public, one local shop owner has tackled the task of helping to increase the supply of face coverings to meet the demand.
Hannah Mills, owner of the Hot Springy Dingy, 409 Park Ave., which had closed to the public in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, said Monday she started making the masks “because I saw that there was going to be a need and wanted to help flatten the curve.”
Mills noted she wasn’t forced to close her gift shop but “saw the common sense in not being open.”
In the beginning, she said there were only a few people asking for the masks, but as of Monday “our Facebook page has over 10,000 hits. The orders are overwhelming.”
When she first started, she said “fabrics were plentiful” and they produced masks with designs like Spiderman, tie-dye, and others with a unique flair, but “those are becoming scarce now.”
She stressed that “as long as the supply lasts we will continue to put a Springy Dingy spin on them,” but “at some point, they will become generic. That being said, it’s the protection they offer that is most important.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, the CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, like in grocery stores and pharmacies, especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.
The use of simple cloth face coverings can slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others, it said.
“We are selling the masks at pretty much our cost, $2 each, as a service to our community and will continue to do so as long as we can keep our cost at its present rate,” Mills said. “We will continue to sew until everyone has what they need to be safe.”
To place an order, one can call the shop at 501-623-2849 and leave an order on the message machine or order them on the shop’s Facebook
page, she said.
“My good friend, Michelle Mouton, has taken over the online orders and my son, David C. Mills, is handling the phone line and pinning pieces together,” Mills said, noting her husband, David Mills, “is cutting out pattern pieces, keeping me organized and cleaning up after me.”
Mills said Sunday was their first day in “full production” and they completed 50 masks in approximately four hours, including set up.
“Hopefully, now that I have others handling the orders and helping with the production process, we will be able to increase our speed,” she said, noting that if anyone has leftover fabrics (cotton or cotton blends) and or narrow (one-quarter inch preferably) elastic “this would be a good time to clean their closet. We will wash it before we use it.”
“Hannah is a sweetheart and a pro,” Angie Ezekiel, president of the Park Avenue Community Association, said Monday. “She will never sit still when there is something she could be doing to help. That is just like Hannah.”
Asked how Park Avenue residents were handling the pandemic, Mills said, “Uptown Park
Avenue is hunkered down and prepared to weather this storm and come back strong when it finally passes.”