By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
They’ve been using regular cotton fabric, bedsheets and old curtains. They also have more than 100 yards of elastic at their disposal.
Tara Crowell and her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie Kutschera, have been meticulously cutting, sewing and pleating dozens of protective homemade masks in an inspiring personal crusade against the deadly coronavirus.
“We made 50 this weekend and then had to take a break. Over the Easter weekend, we’ll make 50 more,” Crowell noted in an interview Wednesday.
Crowell, 49, a Sea Isle City resident and public health professor at Stockton University, joked that she and her daughter will have nothing else to do over Easter while adhering to the stay-at-home social distancing guidelines to stem the spread of COVID-19.
But all of their sewing underscores a serious effort to help save lives. They have been giving the surgical-style masks to family members, friends and neighbors – not only in Sea Isle, but in other parts of the country that have been much harder hit by the pandemic, including New York City, the epicenter of coronavirus deaths.
The 50 masks they plan to make over Easter weekend will be sent to Courtney Kincade and Shaun Mooney, a married couple in Hoboken, N.J., who have close ties to Sea Isle.
Mooney, 54, who oversees 11 buildings in Manhattan for the commercial real estate group Tishman Speyer, plans to use the masks to help protect his workers in New York.
“We’re very appreciative that all eyes are on New York City and that people are thinking about us and want to help,” Kincade said of Crowell and her daughter, Ellie.
Kincade, 45, is a hospice nurse for Valley Hospital in Bergen County, another area slammed by the coronavirus outbreak. She grew up in Sea Isle and has a vacation home in West Cape May.
Kincade’s mother, Barbara Crowley, 73, lives in Sea Isle and is one of Tara Crowell’s neighbors. Crowell and Ellie had earlier made two masks for Crowley and her husband, Michael, 74. After hearing of the masks, Kincade and her husband wondered whether the mother-daughter sewing team could make 100 more masks to help protect the workers at Tishman Speyer in New York.
“There was no hesitation,” Barbara Crowley explained of Crowell and Ellie agreeing to make the 100 masks.
Crowley said she first spoke to Crowell last Friday and by Sunday, Crowell and Ellie had sewn 50. Another 50 will soon be on the way.
“I thought not only are they reaching out to this community, but they also responded when I said we have big problems in New York City,” Crowley said.
Altogether, Crowell estimated it took 10 to 12 hours of work last Saturday and Sunday to complete the first set of 50 masks that are headed to New York.
She explained that it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to make each mask. The process involves cutting the fabric, pinning the material together, adding the elastic bands, sewing the masks and then ironing and pleating them before they are sewn for a final time.
Crowell and Ellie use different types of material ranging from cotton fabric to bedsheets to old curtains to old shower curtains. For the bands on the masks, Crowell spent $80 to buy 144 yards of elastic from a fabric company online.
Crowell said her inspiration for making the masks dates back to when her husband, Anthony Kutschera, 50, a volunteer firefighter in Sea Isle, was badly injured during a major fire years ago.
The community came together to help the family while Kutschera was home recuperating from his injuries, including bringing dinner to their house.
“That’s the beauty of Sea Isle,” Crowell said.
Her daughter, Ellie, has also taken up her mother’s passion for helping others. It began after Crowell returned from a service trip with Stockton University a few years ago that included helping an impoverished area of Bogota, Colombia. Although just a young girl at the time, Ellie began collecting basic medical supplies and other essentials for the same region of Colombia.
“We’ve always wanted to do things to help people,” Crowell said.
Now, Ellie has joined her mother in their efforts to protect people from COVID-19 – one handmade mask at a time.
“I always told my daughter that if you can help people on a micro level, you get to know the names and faces of the people you are helping,” Crowell said.
