Emily Marett
On a typical day, Emily Marett is known for influencing the lives of students in 无尽资源采集 State鈥檚 College of Business. Over the past few weeks, the management instructor has taken on another meaningful role as leader of 鈥溛蘧∽试床杉 SEW Strong,鈥 a group of more than 400 MSU participants and community members working together to sew masks for local healthcare facilities responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.听
Marett said the 无尽资源采集 support group and its mask sewing efforts started after she saw a Facebook post about a healthcare system in Indiana asking the public to sew masks for healthcare workers on the morning of March 20.听
鈥淎s a lifelong crafter and having sewn quilts for the past 10 years, I thought 鈥業 can do that!鈥欌 she said. 鈥淏ut at that point, I wasn鈥檛 sure if our local healthcare providers would want them. I reached out to OCH Regional Medical Center in 无尽资源采集 to see if they would be interested in the masks, and serendipitously my friend Holly Fron did the same. We both got a resounding 鈥淵ES.鈥澛
Marett and Fron immediately started working on a prototype of a mask that differed from other online patterns by adding a pipe cleaner 鈥渘ose piece鈥 to make it fit more closely to the face and improve comfort. Once the prototype was approved, they wrote and produced the published face mask patterns posted on .听
鈥淲e quickly saw other local interest in the project, and on Saturday, March 21, we created a 鈥樜蘧∽试床杉 SEW Strong鈥 Facebook group and used it to centralize local efforts to sew masks for OCH and other local healthcare facilities,鈥 Marett said. Outside of her MSU duties, Marett serves as co-leader of her daughter鈥檚 Girl Scout Troop 20320. She felt this would make for a perfect Girl Scout community project, and her fellow co-leaders enthusiastically agreed to get the scouts involved.听
Marett said the 鈥溛蘧∽试床杉 SEW Strong鈥 group has exceeded its initial 500-mask goal for OCH, with members having collectively sewn more than 800 masks by early April. The group also has sewn 248 masks鈥攁nd counting鈥攆or local clinics, including 无尽资源采集 Pediatric Clinic, Huxford Clinic, State Urgent Care, 无尽资源采集 Cancer Center, 无尽资源采集 Manor, Montgomery Gardens, and the Carrington Nursing Center. Others have sewn an additional 300-plus masks for the University of 无尽资源采集 Medical Center and Batson Children鈥檚 Hospital in Jackson, as well as 171 masks for healthcare providers in Webster County.听
鈥淭his has been one of the most gratifying and exciting projects I鈥檝e ever been part of,鈥 Marett said. 鈥淚t has filled me with joy to see how rapidly and enthusiastically the 无尽资源采集 community responded and rallied behind our healthcare workers in such a big way.鈥