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CENTERVILLE – Governor Larry Hogan and state lawmakers recently honored a group of volunteers known as Mask Wranglers for helping fight the COVID-19 pandemic by personalizing more than 43,000 authorities and individuals in all nine counties Protective gear sewn and made available on Maryland’s east coast.
The Mask Wranglers consist of more than 300 volunteers from across the coast, coordinated by Dr. Teri O’Meara from Centerville. Del. Steve Arentz, R-36-QA, brought O’Meara and her group to the attention of the governor. The Mask Wranglers ended their yearlong endeavors in April. O’Meara and Gary Austin of Easton traveled to Annapolis to receive quotes from the governor and the general assembly.
Mask Wranglers and driver Gary Austin and organizer Teri O’Meara receive appreciation quotes from Governor Larry Hogan. From left: Senator Steve Hershey, Mask Wranglers driver Gary Austin, Governor Larry Hogan, Mask Wranglers organizer Teri O’Meara, Del. Steve Arentz and Del. Jay Jacobs.
“It was an honor to work with the governor’s office to bring Dr. O’Meara and Mr. Austin along with the Mask Wranglers quotes. The work she and the many volunteers have done to provide (over 43,000) masks, gowns and surgical hoods for state, regional and nonprofit organizations across the east coast has been instrumental in slowing the COVID virus, “Arentz said. “Some of the types of agencies that were served were detention centers, hospitals, police and sheriff’s departments, convention homes, and the Maryland Food Bank and other utilities that protected staff in those facilities.”
Kent Detention Center Director Herbert Dennis said, “I have called them my angels.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, no prisons were actually able to find PPE; O’Meara made it bearable, he said. The Mask Wranglers sewed masks for staff and inmates so they could have one on and one in the wash. Later they also supplied washable surgical gowns.
“She made sure that we are all protected. O’Meara and her team made it possible for us to give masks to everyone, ”said Dennis. “They were angels for all corrections on the shore.”
“Teri is a real lifesaver,” said Gary Hofmann, Queen Anne County Sheriff. At the start of the pandemic, his office would run out of supplies. Nobody could get PPE. “She was the only person who offered help.”
The Mask Wranglers provided MPs and office workers with washable masks, and O’Meara even added a personal note to each, he said.
“I don’t know what we would have done without her,” said Hofmann.
“Hundreds of volunteers have given the time, talent and materials to make PPE,” said O’Meara. Some might have volunteered for a week or two, some for months, others just for a certain amount of effort, and some sewing all year round.
She described the Mask Wranglers as “women, men, and youth who have volunteered since the first week of March 2020 to sew masks, isolation gowns, and surgical hoods for inquiring government, county, and nonprofit organizations in Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Caroline “. , Dorchester, Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset and Cecil Counties. We are first responders, retirees, frail elderly, essential service workers, 4-H teens and teenagers at home, sailmakers, handyman, dress designers, boat interior designers, auto detailers, quilters, fashion designers, artists, interior designers, and more. We sew with machines from 1890s pedals to Japanese workhorse machines from the 1950s to modern household goods and industrial machines. “
The PPE they developed included washable, reusable, pleated cloth masks, washable N95 cloth masks, disposable masks for law enforcement agencies, and protective equipment for nurses, physical therapists, office workers, inmates and chemotherapy patients.
O’Meara compared the masks with art – “Beautiful, tiny works of art, lovingly created by sewers from many counties …”
O’Meara, a nationally and internationally recognized quilt artist, created a quilted art dress that he could present to Hogan for the occasion. She labeled the dress with the names of the volunteers.
Del. Steve Arentz, center left, helps Governor Larry Hogan put on the quilted isolation gown made for him by Mask Wranglers organizer Teri O’Meara.
“Hundreds of names. It’s so humiliating. Whole church women’s groups took part. … My friend asked how I could write on such a beautiful work of art. It’s not an art until it speaks. It will only have one vote when all are added. So many great people on the shore. Just so inspiring, ”said O’Meara.
When they met with the governor, O’Meara got him to sign the PPE isolation gown she made and wear it for the photo, Arentz said.
O’Meara called Austin the “driving force” (pun intended) of the Mask Wranglers’ endeavors. A retired U.S. Air Force officer, Austin and his wife Judy, originally contacted O’Meara and offered to hand-sew masks. She told him the masks were too complicated to make by hand, but maybe there was another way he could help. She called him back and asked if he wanted to drive the car.
Gary Austin will be collecting bags of supplies and personal protective equipment from Teri O’Meara’s house in December 2020.
“I don’t have the talent to sew or do anything, and I don’t have a medical background. But I can drive a car and I know how to use a Google GPS. So that ticks all the boxes, ”Austin told The Star Democrat in an earlier interview.
So he picked up fabrics, patterns, parts, sewing machines and finished products and delivered them to where they wanted to go – driving five hours a day, often more.
“During the lockdown, Gary was given special permission to drive around the counties as a key volunteer. There were several months when Gary drove six days a week. Without the efforts of Gary Austin, this project would have been impossible, ”said O’Meara.
Last year Austin drove his car more than 20,000 miles to supply PPE.
In addition to collecting supplies down the drains and delivering PPE to government agencies, Austin picked up thousands of bedsheets from numerous municipal bedsheets (over four feet of fabric are needed to make each isolation gown). He and his wife turned their garage into a warehouse, sorting and organizing piles of donated sheets, pillow cases, and comforters that he delivered to the waterfront sewers when needed.
O’Meara called Austin her “Knight in Shining Armor”.
Both O’Meara and Austin mentioned another Talbot County resident who helped out as a part-time courier, Elizabeth Tong, who ran to some of the more remote locations.
O’Meara was spurred on to begin efforts at the start of the pandemic when she reached out to a quilting group she was a part of for help masking the local sheriff’s office and was turned down because they said they just wanted sew for their own county. So O’Meara reached out to the community and their appeal met with a tremendous response.
Efforts began with protecting law enforcement and correctional officers. Realizing these are situations where social distancing is difficult, if not impossible, masks were even more important. Their mantra was “no deaths in the detention centers,” said O’Meara, and that is what they achieved here on the bank.
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