The formidable teacher, mother of two, and spouse of a former navy man, Jerry Welsh, refuses to hunker down during these unusual times and ride out the storm. Instead, a virtuoso of sorts with a needle and thread, Welsh is keeping herself busy during these unusual times, employing her formidable skills to create handmade face masks for a variety of friends, neighbors, and even health care workers.
She isn’t the only “face mask angel” creating masks for friends, but she certainly appears to be one of the most prolific, producing the protective mask designed to ward off the coronavirus.
Since she began this project a few weeks ago, Welsh and her daughter Kimberly, have created well over 400 masks, and she’s not about to stop. In fact, it was Kimberly who provided the motivation to start making the much-needed masks.
“That’s the whole reason we got started,” said Welsh. “She (Kimberly) has an auto-immune disease, and so she has to have a mask on to go anywhere. So, we thought that we would get together, and if we made everybody safe, then it would be safe for her to be able to go do her grocery shopping and all of that stuff.”
Two hundred of her custom-made masks have gone to Fresno’s Valley Health Team where a former Lemoore High School nurse, Lisa DeGraff, serves as director of nursing. “I made 200 for Lisa. She’s in charge of Valley Health Team in Fresno. She called me and she said, ‘Hey, I need 200 of them,' so my daughter and I, we just delivered the last of them yesterday.”
DeGraff, when contacted by The Leader, said her facility, like many others in the Valley, was in dire need of face masks and when she heard that Welsh was making them, she reached out to her friend. “I saw that Wendy was making masks. I emailed her and said Valley Health Team could really use some masks. She really saved us,” said a thankful DeGraff.
“Valley Health Team is a federally qualified health care center, and we have clinics from Dinuba to Kingsburg, Clovis, Kerman – all across the three counties. We were in such dire straits because we are actively doing testing.”
DeGraff needed equipment, particularly masks.
“I needed 200 masks,” she said. “She didn’t charge us a dime. She and Kimberly spent two and a half weeks sewing masks for our nursing staff in 10 clinics, and they’re all wearing those masks that Wendy made for us. She saved us from really having to put our staff at risk.”
Welsh also sent 20 masks to friends in Florida – where she and her family used to live. “They’ve kind of gone all over,” she said. “We sent some to Japan, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, Washington – wherever we have friends. They’ve just kind of been asking me, so we send them off.”
The masks have all adhered to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regarding cloth face coverings. “We go by the CDC guidelines and we make them with the elastic that goes over the ears, and we also can make them with ties, more like what nurses would wear.”
How long does it take to create a mask? “About six minutes,” proclaimed Welsh. “We’ve got it down to pretty good science.” At that rate, Welsh and her daughter could probably outfit all 25,000 Lemoore residents.
She is also making masks for friends and others who work at the base. Recently, Naval Air Station Lemoore base officials began requiring everybody who works on the base to have a mask. “Most of our friends are military, and to be able to get on the base now they have to have a mask.”
CDC Guidelines for face coverings
When the storm of coronavirus finally clears, and calm returns to the land, some of its demise will no doubt be attributed to those quiet souls – saints like Wendy Welsh and her daughter Kimberly – many of whom labored night and day, without remuneration, simply to help.
