Published by Trustmark on August 6th, 2020

Debbie Stanley, a Senior Pharmacy Strategy Specialist for Trustmark learned to sew like so many people — in an 8th grade home economics class. As an adult, she purchased a sewing machine and discovered it was a good hobby.

Healthcare workers wearing masks

It wasn’t as if she sewed every day but she liked the way she felt after sewing.
 
“It was always very calming for me,” she said.
 
Little could she have imagined that this hobby would one day allow her to provide key protective equipment during a pandemic.
 
Stanley’s daughter, Shannon, works in administration for a local healthcare facility. Shannon asked her mom if she could sew some extra masks to for the staff. After finding a plethora of pattern options on Pinterest, Stanley decided her next step was to watch some basic instructional videos.
 
Then, she got to it.
 
Working nights and weekends, she cranked out 100 masks for her daughter and her daughter’s co-workers, along with her son and other family and friends.
 
The feedback on her masks was so impressive that Stanley is continuing to lend her talents for the cause. She joined a Facebook group of volunteers and is sewing masks for nursing homes and rehab facilities.