A woman in Lisbon, Iowa, is offering help in a unique way to her neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic.
When 55-year-old Deb Siggins heard in March that medical personnel at UnityPoint Health St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids needed masks, she decided to answer the call, according to CBS 17.
However, once friends and family heard about her efforts, they also wanted masks.
“It went crazy, I’m getting so many requests from everywhere to the point where I can’t keep up,” Siggins explained.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended wearing masks in public places “where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies).”
“Cloth face coverings fashioned from household items or made at home from common materials at low cost can be used as an additional, voluntary public health measure,” the site read.
To help with the mask shortage, but also maintain the recommended social distancing guidelines, the seamstress got the idea to hang them in a tree outside her home which she and her husband usually decorate for Christmas and Easter, according to the New York Post.
When she told everyone about the tree on Facebook, the response was overwhelming.
“It was really cool to see people driving up, grabbing a mask and leaving. It’s been a hit,” she recalled.
Siggins estimated that she has sewn about 400 masks, 100 of which went to the hospital.
She also gave some to coworkers, firefighters, paramedics, grocery store employees, and to elderly patients at the doctor’s office where she works.
Siggins bought all the materials herself and said she would “keep doing it until [they aren’t] needed anymore.”
“I just felt like [my knitting] is a gift that I could put it towards other people, because it’s a gift that God has given me,” she noted, adding, “I’m a giver not a taker, so I’m always happy to help.”
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