Sheriff’s offices in the tri-county area are doing their part to provide protective masks for first responders, healthcare workers and those in essential jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across Florida.
At the end of March, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office started collecting the raw materials to make masks to give out to corrections officers, deputies and other governmental agency employees who come in contact with the public on a daily basis. Detention support specialists then took to their sewing machines and started cranking out the much-needed masks to fill a void across the county.
Since that time, the sheriff’s office has delivered the masks to a variety of agencies, including the Department of Children and Families, Thomas E. Langley Medical Center, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery & Implant Center, tax collector’s office, school board and clerk of courts.
In Lake County, the sheriff’s office has partnered with Lake Support And Emergency Recovery, the county’s Emergency Management Office and many local churches to provide more than 850 masks to first responders, thanks to the efforts of the sewing program at the jail and from local crafters.
The inmates making the masks are part of the jail’s sewing and textiles work program, which gives inmate skills to use in the workforce when they are released. Many of them will be distributed to the medics working at Lake EMS.
Lt. John Herrell, the sheriff’s office’s public information officer, said the goal is to initially produce 10,000 masks. Once that goal is accomplished, he said more will be produced as they are needed.
In Marion County, the sheriff’s office acquired the needed materials for masks on Thursday and inmate volunteers at the jail went to work in the facility’s sewing room. The high-quality materials being used are rated to prevent more than 99 percent of dangerous airborne germs.
The masks will be donated to those providing direct care to Marion
County residents, such as Marion Senior Services, which delivers meals and provides transportation to those in need, and local nursing homes, among others.
“I know our hospitals are a priority right now, but my hope is that these additional masks will help those agencies and offices outside of the hospitals that are finding their resources stretched right now,” Sheriff Billy Woods said. “I applaud these inmates that have volunteered to step up and do their part to help during this time. With our senior citizens having been identified as the most at-risk population, our hopes are that this effort will contribute to their safety.”
Marion County services and nursing homes in need of masks are encouraged to contact the sheriff’s office’s Citizen Information Line at (352) 369-7500.
The daughter of a longtime Villages doctor also has been busy producing masks for medical providers. Lynda Cowin Nijensohn, 45, whose father is local orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Cowin, and her two children – 14-year-old Mariana and 12-year-old Jed – live in the Boston area and have been making masks for medical professionals there and in the tri-county local area.
“In this time of crisis everyone wants to help,” Cowin said. “This is a way to contribute to the effort. They have made over 200 masks, which I have given to healthcare providers. I’m so proud of them.”
