Woman Leaves Homemade Coronavirus Masks For Bed-Stuy Neighbors

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Rebecca Beeman's "old lady" skills could be life savers for residents in coronavirus-hit Bed-Stuy neighborhood.

Stuck at home with a load of quiliting fabric and a sewing machine, the director of the CUNY's community partnerships put her craft skills to use making face masks — and she offers them for free to her neighbors.

While her day job working with community-based programs keeps her busy, Beeman spends her spare time and the majority of her weekends creating the masks.

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Once completed, Beeman places the masks into a small basket and puts it on her stoop for people to take. She says its a way to help her community which keeping herself sane with activity.

Beeman, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts Therapy, says to date she's made and given away about 50 masks and has another 50 prepped and ready to go. Each mask takes about 15 minutes to complete as part of a multi-step process that involves Beeman cutting the material, making two separate sews and keeping the material ironed.

Beeman follows guidelines set in place by the Center For Disease Control to ensure the masks will protect people who wear them. The response has been overwhelming — a basket of 10-12 masks tends to be grabbed up within 15 minutes of their arrival on Beeman’s stoop. She sees some of her masks worn by people she passes on the street.

“If we’re all going to be wearing masks for the coming months, they might as well be pretty and an added accessory to your wardrobe,” Beeman told Patch on Monday. “I think they shouldn’t just be an ugly mask that you’re not excited to wear.”

Beeman, whose grandmother taught her to sew, makes masks for both adult and children. Her choice of material has been popular given the sometimes mundane design of many of the face-coverings people use — if they can find them at all. While her stock of quilting fabric has provided enough material for the masks themselves, Beeman has resorted to using hair ties and donated unused bedsheets for the elastic part of the masks.

Although she has been crafting since she was young, Beeman never imagined that her hobby would turn into something so useful as a time when confirmed cases of the coronavirus and deaths across New York City and beyond continue to rise.

Beeman said she will continue to make masks so long as she has the materials to work with, though she plans to begin focusing on filling orders to donate to nurses and other front-line workers rather than devoting her creations for passersby to pick up.

“It’s not really cool or in style to be able to sew, but it’s definitely become a useful and needed resource in the community,” Beeman said. “I think it’s kind of putting a smile on people’s faces, which is making me happy and bringing me a little bit of joy in all of this.”