Flight Attendant Helps Protect Co-Workers With Coronavirus Masks
SOUTH TAMPA, FL — No one knows more about the front-line dangers of the coronavirus pandemic than a flight attendant.
Long before the word "coronavirus" became a household name around the country, Trish Krider, a South Tampa resident and flight attendant for a major airline, was aware of the deadly virus and its potential to quickly spread.
She also was aware that, as flight attendants, she and her co-workers were at a high risk of getting the coronavirus.
"There's only so much social distancing you can do when you're in a 10- to 15-foot wide space filled with people," she said. "So the fight to prevent the spread of the coronavirus quickly became personal for me."
To protect both airline employees and passengers, the flight attendants began working on a rotating schedule of 14 days on the job followed by 14 days of quarantine. At the request of flight attendant unions, the major airlines also agreed to allow flight attendants to wear face masks.
When it was her turn to self-quarantine at home, Krider wasn't content sitting around the house. She dusted off her sewing machines, rummaged through her boxes of fabric remnants and set to work making face masks for fellow flight attendants.
"My daughter sent me instructions and a pattern from Deaconess (health care in Evansville, Indiana), and I just started making masks nonstop," said Krider.
Krider had no idea that a group of women who attend her church, Hyde Park United Methodist Church, had the same idea.
For years, a group of women from Hyde Park UMC have been coming together to make simple cotton dresses for children in need in Tampa Bay and internationally. The Little Dresses sewing group had just completed its 4,000th dress when they heard about the need for face masks and decided to change their focus.
The Rev. Vicki Walker, minister of missions and outreach, connected the sewing group with Krider so they could share resources.
The sewing group gives away its masks to people with underlying health issues, nursing homes, day-care centers, restaurant workers, first responders and animal shelters.
"Making masks has become my life," said Krider. "Just when I think I've made enough, I get a request for more."
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In fact, Krider made so many masks (500 and counting), she wore out her sewing machines.
Her daughter-in-law in Pensacola offered to lend hers to Krider. When Krider drove to Pensacola to pick up the sewing machine, she learned that her son, who is an emergency medical technician with Escambia County Emergency Medical Services, and his co-workers could use her homemade masks as well.
While EMTs and other front-line health care workers wear N95 surgical masks for protection during their eight- to 12-hour shifts, they discovered using a cloth mask over the paper surgical mask could extend the life of the surgical mask, which are in short supply.
It's a practice that's been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
"He ordered 200 of them from me right then," she said. A recent article in his local newspaper featured he and his co-workers wearing his mother's colorful masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending the use of the fabric face masks for protection when members of the public have to run errands outside their homes so the demand for the masks is greater than ever, said Krider.
"They don’t have the filter that the surgical masks have, but they’re better than nothing," said Krider. "We all have a tendency to touch our faces, which can spread the coronavirus. The mask reminds you not to touch your face."
Krider and the members of the Little Dresses sewing group don't take payment for their masks. But they will accept donations for postage as well as supplies, which are becoming increasingly scarce.
The masks must be made from 100 percent tightly woven cotton that can be washed in a washing machine or placed in a medical sterilizer.
"Elastic for the masks is no longer available anywhere," said Krider. She said all the supplies of quarter- and eighth-inch elastic for sewing have been sold out due to the demand for the fabric face masks. Krider has adapted using ponytail holders from the Dollar Tree to provide the needed elasticity for the masks.
On Tuesday, Krider returns to her job as a flight attendant after her two-week quarantine, and plans to wear one of her own color-coordinated masks with her airline uniform. At the age of 65, she said she's just crossed into the category of seniors that Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees has recommended stay at home.
"But I'm very healthy and I have no underlying medical conditions," Krider said. "So, as long as I take all necessary precautions, I want to keep working, and I believe I'll be OK."
Anyone who would like to order masks, make a monetary donation or provide supplies of 100 percent cotton fabric and elastic to the mask makers can contact Beth Hardy at Bethardy0324@gmail.com or send donations care of the Little Dresses sewing group to Hyde Park UMC, 500 W. Platt St., Tampa, FL 33606
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This article originally appeared on the Tampa Patch
