Coronavirus: South Attleboro Village Lions Lend A Sewing Hand

ATTLEBORO, MA — The South Attleboro Village Lions Club calls the project "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." At the heart of that neighborhood are the hospitals, nursing homes, banks, grocery stores, pet stores, school food services, friends, family and many others in the Attleboro area that have received more than 1,000 protective face masks from the Lions Club since the start of the new coronavirus health emergency.

Debby Horner, a retired U.S. Army Infantry veteran from the Vietnam Era, is the Mr. Rogers who delivered many of the masks. And, while Horner is affectionately known as "Mr. Rogers" in the project, she is just one of this army of more than 70 volunteers purchasing fabric, cutting it into shape, sewing it together and then making deliveries to help out their greater neighborhood the best way they can.

"He always talked about people's feelings," Horner told Patch of naming the project after late children's show host Fred Rogers. "He talked about things that a child does not always want to discuss. 'Why are you afraid? Why are you scared?' These are scary times right now."

As a 102-year-old organization based on community service initiatives, the Lions wanted to help when the region largely closed down as part of the sudden, and overwhelming, coronavirus crisis.

"I didn't know we would get to 1,000 masks that quickly," South Village Lions President Gail Girard said. "But everybody pitched in one way or another. If they could not sew, maybe it was money. We had a lot of donations from the community. It all pooled together.

"Our club members are relentless," she added. "Our biggest strength is our membership."

Girard said once upon a time she used to sew her children's Halloween costumes. Decades later, when she dug out her sewing machine for the mask project she found it did not work.

So she immediately bought another one.

"I just got a sewing machine and started sewing," she said. "It's nice to help in any way we can. The ladies in the club not only like to make a difference in the lives of the people who are in need, they gain the satisfaction of knowing their skills helped others, and that makes them feel better."

There are different jobs within the neighborhood that are coordinated through a busy series of text chains.

"That's what we do," Horner added. "We do care. We're compassionate. We said: 'What can we do?' With the limited resources we have, and the limited things we can do having to stay home, when we saw JOANN (Fabric and Craft Stores was providing free) mask kits we decided it was something uplifting we could do."

The fabric is washed, dried, ironed, cut, reinforced with extra protective material and pipe cleaners, sewed together and delivered. The South Attleboro Village Lions have found a way to stretch their resources to the limit through making 10 masks out of every packet designed to make five.

"I delivered to a nurse at Norwood hospital (Monday) night about 10:30," Horner said. "She was in tears when I gave them too her. The poor thing. Heartache."

The masks have been sent to Sturdy Memorial in Attleboro, and both Kent Memorial and Rhode Island Hospital in RI, as well as 12 nursing homes and two senior living facilities.

Horner said the Lions have experienced that same mixture of bittersweet fulfillment with each delivery to each group of nurses, doctors and health care personnel.

"The nurses are required to use this stuff over and over again," Horner said. "They need proper equipment. These are not the (N95 respirator) masks they really need. But this is the best we can do. It's ridiculous. It's sad."

Where the cloth masks are more well-suited are for the veterans groups, mail carriers, Stop & Shop workers, veterinary offices, visiting nurses' associations staff, pet food cashiers and the senior facilities Horner said have benefited from the Lions' collective efforts over the past three weeks.

"You just have to plant the seed and these women make the forest grow," Horner said. "Distributing these masks keeps us going. It keeps us smiling and laughing. We're trying to keep our spirits up too."

Girard said the project epitomizes the spirit of her Helen Keller-inspired platform as South Village Lions president: "Alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much."

So, instead of worry-filled days sitting around the house wondering when things might ever get back to normal, the women of the South Attleboro Village Lions spend their mornings, afternoons and nights buying kits, cutting, washing, ironing, sewing and delivering.

They spend their days doing for others. Because that's what they do.

They spend their days trying to be the type of people Fred Rogers was referencing in this statement: "When I was a little boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me to look for helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

"The South Attleboro Village Lions are the extraordinary helpers Mr. Rogers was talking about in these unimaginable times," Horner said. "We should all be very proud of our club and all we do, not only with the mask project, but with all of the other good things we do."

(If you have a story of a local business or organization that is looking to lend a hand to those in need during the new coronavirus pandemic,or lift spirits amid social distancing and isolation, Patch wants to let people in your community know about it. Contact Scott Souza at Scott.Souza@patch.com to help us spread the positives during this uncertain time.)

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