Tiburon Peninsula residents join movement to sew homemade masks

Paula Coven was watching the news a couple of weeks ago when she heard an appeal from a doctor: Hospitals and other health-care facilities were so short on protective supplies that they were asking the public to sew handmade washable cotton masks to help tide workers over. That plea prompted the Paradise Cay resident to start stitching. “I Googled ‘mask’ and ‘CDC’ and found a pattern,” says Coven, 61, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I’m not the greatest sewer, but I’m learning.” Coven is one of several Tiburon Peninsula residents (including Piper Berger, pictured) who are answering health facilities’ urgent call for protective equipment by powering up their sewing machines. Stuck inside during the statewide shelter-in-place order, locals are crafting homemade facemasks to help protect doctors, nurses and others — including themselves — from the coronavirus.

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