Hospitals and clinics across America are anticipating a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as the number of COVID-19 patients rise. I am asking everyone that may have a store of much needed PPE’s to please donate them to a local clinic or hospital!

These include:

• Masks

  • N95 masks (clinical or industrial)

  • Surgical masks

• Face/eye protection

  • Face shields (medical grade)

  • Goggles (medical grade)

• Gowns

  • Isolation gowns

  • Surgical gowns

  • Tyvek suits

• Gloves

  • Examination gloves

  • Surgical gloves

PPE’s are commonly used by businesses in manufacturing, construction, oil and gas, industrial clean-up, and many more.  For example, paint spraying, wood-working, metal working ( such as welding, sanding/polishing,) machine or auto maintenance, general industrial clean-up and processing including abatement/remediation, agriculture, and those that work with herbicides and pesticides, house cleaning, spas, hair, and nail salons. All of these businesses purchase and utilize PPE’s that are sorely needed back in the medical community to protect our healthcare workers!

If you, or anyone you know, has access to a quantity of these items, please please please get them to where they will do the most good right now. Your stock can be replenished when the coronavirus pandemic has subsided and we are back to some semblance of normality.

And, if you are associated with any type of manufacturing that could produce these items, I so hope that you will! My brother has temporarily suspended normal operations of his metal fabrication business to make face shields. I am so proud of him!

If you do not have access to PPEs, and are not in the manufacturing sector, you can still help!

Join me and thousands of others across the country in sewing cloth face masks and donating them to the medical community. I’m calling upon all my listeners to help me in my Hope Masks efforts!

In addition to providing masks for the medical community, there are several encouraging reports demonstrating that face masks worn by the general public can help slow the spread of the coronavirus. The age-old advice of “cover your cough” is something I feel we should all be taking, and encouraging others to do the same.

Because one can be contagious weeks before noticing any symptoms, or in fact, without EVER becoming symptomatic, treating ourselves as potential carriers is a wise practice. So, make masks for yourself and your family members too, wear them when venturing out to the grocery store or other public places. Choose a fabric that you love and rock those masks!

Instructions from Deaconess, with a pattern from The Turban Project,*
and How-To video can be found HERE.

And a tutorial created by JoAnn Fabrics can be found HERE.

With all my girls and my mother-in-law helping with the effort, we’ve been able to make over 100 masks in less than a week. It’s an activity that has brought us together for conversation, laughter, and skill building, all in an effort to help others.

Having something meaningful to do with your hands and heart is good for you and those your efforts will support!

Join my 10 Million Mask Challenge!

Use hashtags #hopemasks #10millionmasks #radiodelilah