One Thread campaign creates thousands of masks for charity
What started as a personal project, has led junior Stephanie Chung to pair up with One Thread Nonprofit Organization in making and donating handmade masks. As Chung covered topics such as COVID-19 news on her YouTube channel, she realized the necessity of wearing masks, yet the difficulty of accessing them.
“Even though it is critical to wear masks to stop the spread of the virus, there weren’t many people realizing this fact,” Chung said via email. “There aren’t many manufacturers in the U.S. that fabricate masks. So when the COVID-19 outbreak started, there were insufficient supplies for everyone and though people started to think about wearing masks to protect themselves they simply could not get them. I started to research how to make homemade masks with different types of filters you can get in the US that can prevent the virus from entering your respiratory system. I first made a few for my family members to try out, then started to hand out the masks to the people around me which eventually led me to donate to local hospitals like Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Dallas.”
Chung is a board member for One Thread Nonprofit Organization and decided to lead the campaign with One Thread in order to amplify her initiative. For One Thread’s vice president, senior Sofia Calderon, the nonprofit organization was able to use their platform to encourage people to follow CDC’s safety guidelines.
“The campaign was launched in order to produce masks in a time where masks weren’t widely available and also to encourage people to take the CDC guidelines seriously by providing them the means to do so,” Calderon said via email. “At One Thread, we used our social media platforms and members to spread the message and make masks for local nursing homes, homeless shelters, and hospitals during the wake of the pandemic. Now, we are focusing less on mass production as masks become more available, and on smaller projects that have a high impact in our local area.”
Volunteers are given the materials to make 5-10 handmade masks every week with both drop-off and pick-up done in a contactless way. Fabric donations to make the masks have been made by organizations such as Plano Quilt Guild and Stitched with Love Texas.
“When the campaign started we of course wanted a lot of involvement, but the turnout from people that wanted to help out was a wonderful surprise,” Calderon said via email. “It honestly warmed my heart to see people so willing to help out and opened my eyes, as I’m sure many others as well, to how easy it is to actually make an impact during a time where you can’t even get sick feet too close to people. It really highlighted the power of action during crucial moments of response. Going into the campaign, we had to look for places to donate, distribute material, and be constantly planning and managing where materials were going and coming from.
Volunteer, senior Amber Cheng joined the campaign in March, and has made more than 150 masks.
“I became a part of the Mask Making Campaign because I wanted to give back to the community,” Cheng said via text. “I really like sewing masks because I can create something out of just fabrics and threads. Sewing is really calming and through One Thread, I could turn my hobby into community service and help people out. Through [the] Mask Making Campaign I can make a difference locally and help prevent the spread of the virus.”
Chung has created a second YouTube channel, dedicated to the Mask Making Campaign and uploading informative videos about mask making.
“The Mask Making Campaign will continue until the COVID 19 situation settles down,” Chung said via email. “We don’t want any tragedies of people not being able to wear masks because they cannot get them. The goal of the campaign is about the wellbeing of our local community and to provide them with masks to fight against the COVID 19 together. Whether it will be over by a year, or even two, we will continue making reusable and eco-friendly masks to provide the most standard and necessary protection to those that need it the most.”
Throughout the campaign, Chung and One Thread have been able to make over 2000 masks and have donated to the following: Collinwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Austin Street Center, Hope Alliance, Baylor Scott and White Medical Center, Medical City ER, Kroger, City House, McKinney Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, After8toeducate, and Masks2all.
“It’s just one of the things you have to do during a pandemic: adapt to the situation and learn how to do your part during these crazy times,” Calderon said via email. “It truly just opens your eyes to the way you can help from the place in your home. Seeing people wearing masks that people spent hours making in our local area is beyond rewarding. And I think it’s truly part of the lesson that the campaign opened our eyes up to.”
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One Thread transitioned from a campus club to a non-profit organization earlier this school year and is now offering internship positions for students. Applications for a Website Marketing Internship and Social Media Marketing Internship are now open and due Jan. 2 at 11:59 p.m.
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Masks created by One Thread volunteers are packaged and sent to various organizations and charities in need of them.
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One Thread secretary Stephanie Chung is pictured with Stephen Cutshaw, the Administrator of the Collinwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. One Thread was able to donate more than 150 masks to the center.
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The One Thread officer team is pictured in front of the City House, where they were able to donate over 100 masks.
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As the school year slows to a stop for summer, COVID slowly is too. The increased number of vaccinations and the rapid decline in cases means that this summer will certainly be better than the last, and gives way to a hopefully fairly normal 2021-2022 school year.
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The One thread officer team stands in front of Kroger, where they offer free masks to anyone who needs it.
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Volunteers pose with masks created for various charities. One Thread has donated masks to the following: Collinwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Austin Street Center, Hope Alliance, Baylor Scott and White Medical Center, Medical City ER, Kroger, City House, McKinney Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, After8toeducate, and Masks2all.
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The One Thread officer team poses in front of a few of many masks created during the summer.
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The One Thread club on campus hosted a shoe drive last week where over 300 pairs of shoes were collected for donation. “Personally, I had shoes that we could give however, the board and I thought it would be fun to host a big Shoe Drive as a community,” One Thread founder Ayda Sow said. “In addition, since One Thread is all about repurposing clothes and fabric we no longer use, we figured that this would also be a great way to deviate the shoes from reaching our environment!”
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