YWAM ministry leader organizes massive sewing project
The Flathead Valley Mask Makers have used donated material to produce protective masks for more than four dozen organizations around the Valley and beyond. (photo provided)
Kendra Pettry shows off one of the more than 3,500 masks produced by her and the Flathead Valley Mask Makers group. (Photo provided)
Kendra Pettry and her fellow Flathead Valley seamstresses have used their home sewing machines to produce more than 3,500 masks in the last few weeks. (photo provided)
With the help of her newfound friends around the Flathead Valley, Lakeside’s Kendra Pettry is on a mission to provide protective masks to as many essential workers as possible.
When word of a mask shortage reached her a few weeks ago, Pettry quickly used Facebook to organize 101 local seamstresses into the Flathead Valley Mask Makers group, which has now produced more than 3,500 masks for more than four dozen groups and organizations throughout the Flathead Valley and beyond.
Pettry, who works with the Word by Heart ministry of Youth With a Mission in Lakeside teaching others a story-telling way of memorizing scripture, says making the masks just felt like something she needed to do.
“I really felt like God gave me this idea to serve a practical need in our valley. Our motto is ‘Love God and love people.’ This is a way we could love and serve people in the valley right now,” Pettry said. “I wanted to start something to help provide fabric masks for those who would need them in the Flathead and it has just grown so quickly. It has been amazing.”
With material donations from the Quilt Gallery, Ladybug’s Cabin, the Flathead Quilters Guild and others, as well as a wire donation from Crescent Electric, the group set to work producing quality masks as quickly as possible.
“I did a lot of research before I started this and it seemed that most hospitals were requesting masks made of 100 percent quilter’s cotton, so we started working with that,” Pettry said. “I also found a place that was producing a special filtration fabric, so we started putting a slot in each mask for it.”
With the help of a $2,000 donation from the Christian and Missionary Alliance Crisis Board and another $5,000 from an anonymous donor, the group has been able to purchase the filtration fabric and include it with every mask.
The operation is simple, with certain tasks broken up between several groups. Donated fabric is washed by the cutting team coordinator and distributed to the cutting team to be made into properly sized pieces. Those pieces are returned to Pettry, who sorts them with the help of her husband Brad and a few others. The pieces are paired up with wire and elastic and placed in kits, which are then given to the driving team to be delivered to the seamstresses. The finished masks are returned to Pettry and then hand-delivered to each recipient. The whole operation includes approximately 125 people.
Pettry says the process is getting more streamlined every day and that she is getting quite adept at making the masks.
“When I first started, it took me half an hour to make a mask, now I can do one in six minutes. I have really figured out what works well and have come up with a good system,” she said. “I would say the average person could make one in 10 to 12 minutes.”
So far, the group has provided masks for more than four dozen groups in the Flathead and Mission Valleys, including the Evergreen Fire District, Kalispell Fire Department, Whitefish Care and Rehab, Flathead County Sheriff, Kalispell Police, Timber Creek Assisted Living, Creston Fire, Kid Care at the hospital, the Bigfork Medical Clinic, Family Health (Columiba Falls), Three Rivers EMS, Somers Fire Department, Smith Valley Fire, St. Luke’s Hospital, Tribal Health Care and more. The group has also sent a few masks out of state, including some to a group of EMTs working in New York.
The group has nearly filled every request received from the immediate area and is currently working on a project with Bozeman’s Hopa Mountain organization to provide masks to tribal members in need across Montana.
With their small army of home sewing machines, the group has donated more than 1,000 hours of labor with no plans of stopping.
“It has become my full-time job now. I spend between eight and 10 hours a day working on this project right now,” Pettry said. “We are not planning to stop until there is no longer a need or until we are out of fabric. We will continue to find places that need donations, first here in Montana and then we will expand past that if need be.”
Reporter Jeremy Weber may be reached at jweber@dailyinterlake.com.
