Saskatoon’s Open Door Society approaches goal of sewing 10,000 masks

It was an ambitious goal by Saskatoon’s Open Door Society set in early April: to recruit enough talented sewers and volunteers to make 10,000 masks for vulnerable populations throughout the city.

Just a month and a half later, they’re less than 2,500 away from that goal.

One of the project’s coordinators, Janet Peters, keeps a spreadsheet of every single mask that has been created and donated. She says they’ve so far distributed 5,747. Another 1,000 are waiting for distribution and 800 have been sewn but still need to be sterilized at a local dental clinic or the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Dentistry.

“For us, it was a way to help the vulnerable in our community,” said Peters.

There are now 53 sewers and about 25 volunteers who can pick up and deliver masks or help package them. Together, they can create and deliver about 1,000 masks each week.

There have been 56 groups and/or organizations that have so far requested them.

“We have some individuals who’ve asked. But are giving to a few of the clinics in Saskatoon. The Gabriel Dumont Education Centre has asked us for some twice. They are sending them up north. We have given some to the Lighthouse, some to Sherbrooke Nursing Home… and the U of S Crop Sciences Department.”

Other requests have come from small business owners, volunteer fire departments and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner in northern Saskatchewan.

It gives the volunteers and those making the masks a great sense of accomplishment, and of contributing to their community.

“It’s just so nice. Everybody is so happy to get them. We take pictures and we say ‘can we take a picture?’ It does feel good. When I see the response from the community and the volunteers come in repeatedly.”

Peters believes they’ll achieve their goal in the next week or two. Whether they’ll continue to make the masks after that, is something the group is still deciding.

However, at this point, if there are groups in need of the masks they can still contact the Open Door Society to request some at facemaskproject@sods.sk.ca