photo by: Contributed photo

Lawrence resident Sammie Messick provides masks via a tree limb near her house.

Colorful cloth masks are being tied to tree limbs, set out in boxes on sidewalks and left on porches in Ziploc bags. Behind them is a legion of residents putting their sewing skills and the stay-at-home order to good use.

Mayor Jennifer Ananda is one of many Lawrence residents who took up fabric and thread in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ananda has been leaving masks — disinfected and in individual paper bags — on the sidewalk in front of her house for anyone to take.

“I have a little box that I’ve been putting in my front yard that says these masks are free, take one if you don’t have one,” Ananda said.

photo by: Contributed photo

Masks made by Mayor Jennifer Ananda are pictured.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies. The virus can be spread between people who are in close proximity by speaking, coughing or sneezing. The CDC recommendation is based on recent studies that show a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms and those who eventually develop symptoms can transmit the virus before showing symptoms, according to the CDC website.

Ananda is working remotely in her role as Title IX coordinator for Emporia State University, and she has also been spending one to two hours per day sewing masks. She said that so far she has sewn about 125 masks. In return, Ananda said people have left donations of fabric, elastic and even tomato and pepper plants on her front porch. She said that even with no contact the spirit of people helping people persists.

“It’s this lovely little exchange that’s happening that’s unrequested but very heartwarming,” Ananda said.

Old West Lawrence resident Sammie Messick started her community mask-making a little less intentionally. Messick, now in her 70s, said her mother was a seamstress and Messick learned to sew at a young age. She originally made masks for her adult children and their families, but then she started getting requests.

“Initially I thought I’d make 10 or 20, but then I found out people were having trouble getting them,” Messick said.

As she completed a batch of masks, she hung them from a tree limb near her house and used social media to let people know they were free to take them. She said she would hang about 20 masks at a time, and within an hour they’d be gone. Messick, who is a quilter, said she had a stockpile of fabric that she used to make about 180 masks.

photo by: Contributed photo

Lawrence resident Sammie Messick provides masks via a tree limb near her house.

Barker neighborhood resident Kivilcim Yavuz began making masks for neighbors and plans to start making masks to distribute on a broader scale soon. Yavuz, who works for the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, has been working from home during the day and using her evenings and weekends to sew masks. Yavuz said she recently joined the Masks Now Coalition, which is a nonprofit organization that uses volunteer sewers and donations to get masks to organizations that need them for their workers.

North Lawrence resident Megan Willesen is the state lead for Masks Now, where she works to organize volunteers, receive donations and prepare and ship supplies. Willesen said there are 33 volunteers in the state and six in Lawrence, and together they have distributed about 170 masks so far. She said though masks mainly went to organizations, the coalition also provides them to individuals who need them.

“The goal is to put masks in the hands of people regardless of their ability to pay,” Willesen said.

photo by: Contributed photo

Masks made by Kıvılcım Yavuz are pictured.

To start out with, though, Yavuz has just been sewing masks for individuals through requests she gets via social media and word of mouth. She said recipients have included people caring for elderly parents, pregnant mothers and people who are just staying at home but still need to go to the grocery store.

“I want to make something nice for people, too,” Yavuz said. “This is a very traumatic time that we are all going through.”

Yavuz, who learned to sew from her mother and grandmother, said that most of the volunteers sewing masks are women and she hoped their efforts would be recognized.

“It’s important to give this work value,” Yavuz said. “Very basic domestic skills are what are saving us at the moment.”