Above: Michele Studer shows off a camo face mask. Studer, owner of the Quilting Cottage in Brooklyn, is helping a local effort to make face masks for employees at Bixby Hospital in Adrian. She says that around 20 local seamstresses are helping. They donated more than 100 masks today.
Local volunteers in the fight
Michele Studer had hoped to have her new business, The Quilting Cottage, open by now. But like everyone else living in the day and age of coronavirus, things haven’t gone exactly as planned.
So when life threw Studer lemons, she and around 20 other area volunteers opted to make lemonade.
“We were disappointed not to open, but we have found something that needed to get done, and we are doing it,” said Studer. She and her associates are making cloth face masks for hospital workers. A caregiver herself, Studer knows how dire the need for face masks are right now, as health officials are worried that hospitals and care facilities will be overwhelmed in the coming weeks from the coronavirus.
“I have been supplying kits, and the women sew them and put them together,” said Studer, adding that the fabric was donated by Joann Fabrics. They ran out of elastic, but Michele got a call from Bixby Hospital officials letting them know where to get more. (More below)
When the women are done sewing the masks, they leave them in a bin, to keep proper social distance, noted Studer. She picks them up and delivers them to the hospital.
Incidentally, Studer said that her son, Tim, actually gave her the business, which is located across the street from the Exponent in Brooklyn. One of the conditions of the gift was that she is not to stress over it.
“I was floored,” she said. “He handed me over the keys on Valentine’s Day, and said he hoped this covered my birthday and Christmas gifts for a few years,” she said with a laugh.
“We worked hard to have everything ready to be open by April, but I am not going to stress.
“This is my fun.”
Anyone who wants to help in the effort can contact Michele at 517-938-8191.
No more burning
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