CAMDEN, Maine — As schools across Maine are about to open, thousands of students will need to be wearing masks every day. The state Department of Education is working with the CDC and DHHS to provide masks and other PPE items, but there’s no guarantee there will always be enough. So a volunteer group in Camden is working to make sure all the kids in that area have what they need.
The Camden Pop-Up Factory began in March and early April, using volunteers to sew masks for health care workers. They then shifted to masks for the general public. It's done with the help of donations of money and materials. Founder Michael Mullens says a school nurse recently asked for smaller size masks to fit children, so now their total focus is on making those, and distributing them to lower-income families to ensure all students have what they need.
“What we will do,” says Mullens, “is partner with the Alliance for Interfaith Outreach food pantry in the area. And they have a backpack program for lower-income kids and we will provide masks for them to include in the backpacks and make sure those kids can get them and we have enough to equip 375 kids with five masks they can wear all week.”
Mullens says masks need to be rotated every day, and not worn for days at a time without washing.
The Maine Department of Education says they have so far received nearly half a million cloth masks to distribute to all the schools in the state, along with more than 200,000 other types of masks, many of those for school nurses or others who can’t wear the cloth ones. The DOE told NEWS CENTER Maine on Tuesday it will monitor the consumption of the PPE items by schools and try to keep supplies replenished. However, department spokeswoman Kelli Deveaux said there’s no guarantee.
“We have been explicit that we are not certain that our supply will be able to meet all needs.”
The Camden Pop Up Factory is planning to begin by making roughly 1,900 cloth masks for children. The group is looking for more volunteers, and is pointing people to the Facebook page “Mid Coast Pop Up Factory."