I was a Mr. Rogers Neighborhood kid. Hopefully a lot of the good lessons sunk in although I don’t consciously remember many of them.

The one I do remember is that during times of fear or cruel realities, to look for the helpers.

Right now, across the world, those helpers are the medical workers, caretakers, and all of the team in support of our hospitals, elder care, and food access.

And they don’t have the help they need. They don’t have the masks, shields, and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that they need to stay healthy themselves. The items that would prevent them from falling ill, infecting others, or having to stop helping.

We all know these people. We usually know many of them personally. It’s my nephew. It’s my Sister-in-law. It’s my friend’s husband and it’s my cousin’s husband. It’s more than that and for you, it might be even closer to home. Or personal.

Politics aside on how it got this bad, we need to put our feelings (fear, anger, blame, worry, all of it) toward love, hope, and helping.

This came to me today from my dad:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2020/03/20/calling-all-people-who-sew-and-make-you-can-help-solve-2020-n95-type-mask-shortage/#2679d71a4e41

And maybe you do sew. Or maybe you don’t, but you have a weirdly large supply of elastic. Or some random wire to share.

Or a 3D printer.

So today, I’ll be dusting off (literally) my sewing machine. And dusting off my sewing skills (figuratively) to make what masks I have supplies to make.

The more we help one another, the more help there is.