Submitted by Cathy Ferguson
As of April 13/20, St. Jude’s sew-ers, Nancey Orosz, Joan Maddox, Cherie Laughlin, Mary Lou Smithers and Sandra King, have sewn 100 + caps for UH nurses in Emergency and Medicine departments under the umbrella of Scrub Caps Ontario, bringing the local total to 553. The local group is led by Deb Willems whose daughter Gabrielle, a nurse in the Emergency department, was the inspiration for this effort. Nancey and Joan have also sewn caps for their own neighbours working in hospitals! Cathy is staying in touch with the sewers to answer questions, pick up and deliver caps to Deb to give to Gabrielle who ensures they get to caregivers in need at UH.
Edited Update from the Ontario coordinator Monday April 13 to the participants. Our current order total is 3400. We have filled 1388 as a group. What an accomplishment – thank you to those who have been participating. Needs include:
- Couriers. London and Niagara/Hamilton and Cambridge/Kitchener. All of our areas cover large geographical areas. We can use non-sewers willing deliver items to Sarnia, Chatham, into the Toronto area (we have orders for St. Michael’s, Sick Kids), etc. There will be no contact with others. Just a porch pickup from an admin, and a porch drop off to a recipient.
- Sewers, packers, mailers. This is a real need. There are orders from Barrie, Midland, Oshawa, and Belleville where at this time there are no local groups. The plan is to simply mail them if local sewers aren’t recruited. If so, packers and mailers are needed. Many of the healthcare workers want to cover the shipping costs.
- Supplies. This is an ongoing need and we do have some donated funds to purchase supplies. I have been begging everyone I know to raid their stashes for the cause. You can contact your local admin. to donate supplies. We have been receiving the donations, washing them, and distributing to those who are dropping off caps. If you are sewing and dropping caps, and need more supplies? Please let us know. We can hook you up with more fabric, thread, and the greatly prized one – elastic.
Thank you again for joining this Scrub Caps Ontario initiative, Stay healthy and safe, Julianna
There are many sewers and others in London and beyond contributing in many ways. Cathy Ferguson and Deb Willems have joined a private Facebook group Supporting Front Line Workers to stay in the loop with how volunteers can help. The admin Kim Hunter is an organizing force beyond compare and anyone can request to be a part of this private group if interested in volunteering in any way and/or simply wanting to stay informed. Anyone can sew and offer supplies on this site to people requesting caps, masks, gowns etc. including items that sewers need and are running out of like sewing machine needles, thread, elastic, fabric and on. Financial donations are also requested as everything offered on this site are given free of charge.