Surgical scrub cap makers eye Brandon

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This article was published 18/04/2020 (1971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of Winnipeggers sewing homemade surgical scrub caps for front-line hospital workers during the COVID-19 crisis are looking for volunteers to expand the community operation into Brandon.

What started as one nurse wanting to sew a couple of scrub caps to wear exploded into a community-wide endeavour, said Rebecca Chambers, a human-ecology teacher in Winnipeg who started the Facebook group that now connects more than 450 members with the ability and the itch to sew.

Chambers said her friend, an emergency room nurse in Winnipeg, reached out asking whether Chambers knew where she could get some fabric to try sewing her own surgical cap to wear at work.

It sparked a brainstorming session that resulted in two simple patterns for a surgical cap — one for short hair and one for long hair — with buttons on the side to hold up a mask.

“It’s an extra thing (health-care workers) can do to protect themselves … and they want to be as safe as they possibly can,” Chambers said. “Their ears are also breaking down … bleeding after a shift of wearing those masks for hours and hours on end, so (the buttons) take the pressure off their ears.”

Chambers’ friend wore the cap during her next shift, and the response from her co-workers was overwhelming, she said, so she decided to put the call out on Facebook.

Chambers created the group “Surgical caps for Front Line Health Care Staff – Winnipeg Covid 19 Response,” sharing the surgical cap pattern and inviting people to make it.

The group quickly gained momentum, and drop-off/pickup locations were established to get caps to health-care workers and also to connect donations of fabric, thread and buttons to people who sew, Chambers said.

People have been cleaning out their closets looking for fabric and using old bed sheets, she said.

The group has also received donations. Parkland Fabrics in Dauphin donated brand-new fabric for people who sew to use, and people have been purchasing bolts of fabric to donate, as well.

In one week, Chambers said, more than 587 surgical caps have been distributed to health-care workers in hospitals across Winnipeg.

“It’s incredible, and that’s in under a week that we have almost 600 (surgical caps),” Chambers said. “It’s so wonderful that people want to help, that people are looking for ways to help front-line workers. We all have a lot of empathy for folks who are not only needing to work under these circumstances, but who are showing up to work in jobs that are inherently a little more dangerous now that this is going on.”

The group has started getting inquiries from across Manitoba asking how to get involved, Chambers said. Health-care workers in Brandon have also found their way to the group asking how they can get the surgical caps here.

“It sounds like there’s some demand from health-care workers at (Brandon Regional Health Centre) … the demand is definitely outside Winnipeg,” she said.

The patterns are easy to follow, she said, and there are instruction videos available in the Facebook group if you get stuck.

“If I was at school right now, I would absolutely be getting my Grade 10s, possibly even Grade 9s, to be making them.”

Knowing you’re making a difference is also good for your mental health, Chambers said.

“I’m just happy to serve, really. It does make me very happy to bring people together and to meet a genuine need using some specialized skills. I think that’s a good feeling for people.”

Volunteers in Brandon are needed to sew surgical caps, as well as establish pickup/drop-off locations for completed caps and donations of fabric and other sewing materials.

Brandonites who would like to get involved or health-care workers looking for surgical caps are encouraged to join the group “Surgical caps for Front Line Health Care Staff – Winnipeg Covid 19 Response” on Facebook or call Vicky at 204-404-7267.

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