As New York City continues to fight Covid-19, the state’s governor,
Andrew Cuomo officially pleaded to businesses last month to pitch in as
there is a critical need for PPE (personal protective equipment). In
response, Fashion Institute of Technology’s alumni, faculty and students
have united together to make protective masks and PPE for healthcare
professionals and essential workers.
By launching a nationwide volunteer network to easy-to-follow
instructions for creating masks, the FIT community and alumni have drawn on
its resources and knowledge to offer help to New York and beyond as the
country continues to battle the coronavirus. Volunteers from the FIT alumni
network and faculty alike are joining efforts to produce hospital-grade
masks for frontline workers, as well as protective fabric masks for staff
at essential businesses and retailers.
Sew4Lives USA
FIT alumni from Fashion Design ’07, Caroline Berti and Karen Sabag, have
launched the New York State chapter of Sew4Lives USA, a national network of
volunteers organized to sew hospital-grade masks, initially for St.
Joseph’s Health in Syracuse, St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, Glen Cove
Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Long Island, Staten Island University
Hospital, and Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.
In addition, under the direction of the two graduate fashion students,
friends of FIT and SUNY (The State University of New York) have already
joined the program, established teams in multiple regions across New York,
and are also supporting national groups in more than 20 states. Now, there
are close to 100 volunteers on board from coast to coast. To date, nearly
2,500 masks have been made, and approximately 1,500 have been delivered to
frontline and essential workers nationwide.
Caroline Berti shared in an interview published on FIT’s website, “We’re
all in quarantine and having no physical contact and yet in many ways, this
is the most contact we’ve had with anyone. We’re all now connected to this
mission, while before we were working on our own brands or companies, so
this whole thing has brought us together. This has given us a sense of
purpose that some of us have never had before. It’s very overwhelming.”
How to help
Anyone with a sewing machine and cotton material can create this mask
and help at the local level. Easy-to-follow instructions, created by Joan
Endres, FIT adjunct instructor, Fashion Design can be found on FIT’s
official website.
Photos: screenshot of FIT’s website, courtesy of FIT
