To the editor:

I am following up regarding making masks for our public and private servants (medical, hospice, senior citizens, schools, police and first responder teams).

What has been done and is being done to make masks is as follows: Fabrics Plus of Marshall has been coordinating with various medical facilities in the surrounding area to get approved material and patterns to be used to make masks for their use and now have approval and patterns to be put into sewing practice.

Fabrics Plus has invited their customers to come in and pick up the pre-cut material for the patterns and help get them made. (Contact information for Fabrics Plus: 507-537-0835 or email tracy@fabricsplus.com. They will send you the pattern and a video of how to make them.) If you have a sewing group, church group or social group, or if you have the personal skills and want to help, you are all welcome. Please call or email today.

Because the State of Minnesota has a “Stay-at-Home Order” starting March 27, Fabrics Plus has made arrangements to put a drop box at the back of their store for finished masks. In addition, people are able to pick up pre-cut patterns and drop off finished masks with Mail Boxes & Parcel Depot, 1000 E. Southview Drive, Marshall (same building as Avera Thrift Shop); they are open from 9 a.m. through 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Fabrics Plus is working in combination with The Legacy Foundation, whose board of directors has agreed to pay for the materials to make these masks.

I will finish with an additional request to pray for our president and all who are working around the clock to stave off this coronavirus and bring it under control worldwide.

John Drown

Marshall