     During the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lot of activity behind the frontlines. One such activity, not visible to the public eye, is a sewing project that is keeping frontline medical personnel safe.
        Evelyn Vandenberg of Alameda is donating her time and skills to make personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medical professionals and has been very busy sewing up facemasks, surgical caps, headbands and clothing bags.
        The volunteer effort is made possible with the help of others in the area, where she and her husband live and farm north Alameda.
        Vandenberg was looking for pattern ideas for a sewing project on Facebook, when she came across a post discussing the need for PPE in the battle against COVID-19. She discovered a page called Canada Sews that was started by a group of volunteers in Ontario, who were volunteering their time to make PPE. She contacted the group and was put in touch with the co-ordinator for the Saskatchewan volunteer group.
        Each province has been given a list of various needs by hospitals and care homes who are searching for necessary supplies for frontline workers in Saskatchewan and across the country.
        The PPE she is sewing is made of heavy cotton with a tight weave, generally found in fabric used for quilting, which is being donated by others in the area. The donated material, some that is already precut from a standard pattern, is stitched on her industrial sewing machine. She has received a donation from an individual for shipping costs, donations of bias tape and buttons, which are required in the manufacturing of the PPE, and she welcomes donations from anyone that can help in any way or capacity with the effort.
        So far, Vandenberg has shipped items to La Ronge, Cypress Regional Hospital in Swift Current, Kelowna B.C., and a hospital in Toronto. As well, she has had a lady from Golden Prairie, SK send her masks to include in her shipments.
        Vandenberg started the project about three weeks ago and so far has shipped over 250 pieces of PPE. At the time of this writing, she has enough fabric for about 200 more masks and surgical caps. She has spent as many as 10 hours a day sewing, as well as taxiing her husband and son around as they plant this year’s crop. One mask takes about 10 to 15 minutes of sewing time.
        Currently she is organizing for another request for a 1,000 masks that are needed in northern Saskatchewan and she has the call out for more fabric donations, of darker coloured 100 per cent cotton.
     Making it through the 2020 pandemic is truly a community effort that everyone can be involved in. There are many true heroes on the frontlines, as well as behind the lines and we are all in this together as Canadians.
     The Vandenbergs immigrated to Canada from Holland in 2006, initially farming in Vauxhall, Alta., before taking up roots in 2012 on the farm in the Alameda area and are proof positive of this country’s spirit to help others in times of need.
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