Coronavirus Palm Beach County updates: The Sewing Love for Our Neighbors Facebook group is ‘journey of faith’

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WELLINGTON -- A grassroots effort is providing thousands of masks to essential workers as they continue to provide services during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sewing Love for Our Neighbors launched three weeks ago in Wellington, and its volunteers already have made 2,300 masks, with hundreds more on the way, said organizer Jana Rodriguez.

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Rodriguez, who lives in Wellington, saw the need for the masks in mid-March and quickly found others in the area who shared her passion.

“Our group has gone from four to 139 overnight,” she said.

She was joined in the early days by Debbie Lewis, Kathy Dippolito and Carolyn Hmara and more.

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And they’ve been able to provide masks to several groups, including Brookdale Senior Living in West Palm Beach, a South Florida children’s hospital, Wellington’s Village Hall and Wellington Cares, a local organization serving senior citizens.

Wellington thanked the group on social media, having some of the employees still working in Village Hall pose in the lobby -- six feet apart, of course -- while wearing the masks.

“This group saw a need in their community and used their skills to take action and help in the best way they could,” Wellington spokeswoman Liz Nunez said. “We are so impressed by the creativity, innovation and resolve seen throughout our village in these troubling times.”

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Rodriguez also recruited her daughter, a 17-year-old high school senior who, when schools closed and in-person graduation ceremonies and prom were canceled, was understandably upset.

“I told her, ‘You and I are going to be making masks, and I’m not taking no for an answer,’” Rodriguez said.

The project also is very personal for Rodriguez. She sees it as a way to honor her mother -- Rodriguez was unable to see her when she died in Brazil.

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Her mother taught her the sewing skills she’s using today to make masks.

“I feel her closer and closer and closer to me,” Rodriguez said.

The outpouring of support and the passion of the women involved in the mask-making effort has been “overwhelming” for Rodriguez.

“Yes, I had a little dream, but I never imagined it would become this,” she said. “It’s really a journey of faith. My mom must be really happy.”

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For those in the group, the masks are more than just masks, Rodriguez said.

“We look at those masks as souls we are protecting, we are safeguarding,” she said.

Sewing Love for Our Neighbors cannot accept monetary donations, but people can donate supplies to make masks -- fabric, thread and elastic.

For more information, go to Facebook and search “Sewing Love for Our Neighbors” or go to www.facebook.com/groups/526612374705586.

kwebb@pbpost.com

@kristinawebb