Pine-Richland student matches mask makers with those who need them

Serving as a volunteer at UPMC Passavant hospital for the past several years has been a valuable learning experience for Amish Sethi of Pine Township.

But when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, the Pine-Richland junior was no longer allowed in the hospital.

“My ability to volunteer at the hospital ended when the stay-at-home order was given to protect the patients there,” said Sethi, 16. “I felt pretty powerless in regard to how I could help my community while being stuck at home. So I thought about how I could use my knowledge of (computer) coding to help out during the pandemic.”

When Sethi met Norwin High School senior Lydia Berger while participating in a Pittsburgh Dataworks covid-19 project, the pair decided to collaborate on a project to supply nursing homes with protective face masks.

“People are cognizant of how hospitals and inner-city communities are being impacted by the virus,” Sethi said. “But very little do people think about the effect the virus has on nursing homes. This project became my passion as I desired to give back to my community.”

To supply the masks, Sethi and Berger created a website, the Nursing Home Mask Initiative, which connects local crafters who are able to make masks with nursing homes that need the protective devices.

“The goal is to alleviate some of the pressure put on nursing homes by the coronavirus pandemic,” Sethi said. “Even with the economy reopening, many of these care facilities are facing shortages in equipment.”

Sethi noted that nursing homes have become hot spots for covid-19 outbreaks and that many of the vulnerable people who reside in them need the protective equipment.

The students already have arranged for crafters to supply masks for more than two dozen nursing homes in the region, including Redstone Senior Living, which operates facilities in Murrysville, North Huntingdon and Greensburg.

Lisa Dormire, the company’s vice president of mission support, said they “were really caught off guard” when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“We had adequate supplies to care for our nursing home residents who needed to be isolated for a period of time,” she said. “But to provide masks for a workforce of 500 along with 600 residents across our three facilities was daunting because we weren’t able to order what we needed.”

When it became clear that Redstone could not get masks from its vendors, officials used social media to appeal to volunteers to make them.

“Once we put the call out, people started dropping masks off,” Dormire said. “It wasn’t long before we received about 3,000 of them, which is pretty incredible.”

Dormire said the volunteer spirit exhibited during the pandemic, especially among young people like Sethi and Berger, “is heartwarming.”

“There’s very much a sense of ‘I can’t do much, but this is what I can do,’” she said. “And it’s very gratifying to see young people getting involved this way.”

Crafters interested in volunteering to make masks can participate by providing contact information on the website, which contains a list of the facilities that are receiving help.

Nursing facilities that need masks can contact Sethi and Berger at covid19maskinitiative@gmail.com.