Illinois residents are now required to wear a face mask or covering in public. The guidance is especially important when it is impractical to maintain 6 feet of physical distance, as advised by the CDC.
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Sandy Oslance, Lifestyle Coordinator said, âFollowing the âStay at Homeâ order, Tom Fitzpatrick, a Sun City Huntley resident and Neighborhood Watch Captain, had an idea to help supply face masks to various organizations such as home health care and hospice organizations, food pantries, Senior Care Volunteer Network, etc. He shared his idea with his neighbor and friend, Marie Frostman who he knew enjoyed sewing, and shortly after, the âHuntley Strong Hometown Heroes Project was born made up of approximately 45 women who sew.â
âThis has morphed into more than just sewers making, and folks distributing masks. The sharing that continues to go on between women with fabric, elastic, names of other sewers is much bigger than numbers. I’m so proud of everyone coming together for this causeâ said Marie Frostman.
In April, Neighborhood captains send an email out to their residents, offering masks for Sun City residents. The offer included one mask for each person in a household. The orders were coordinated by the Neighborhood Captain.
Frostman said, âThe Huntley Strong: Hometown Hero’s Project is now working with the Neighborhood Watch group to provide masks for residents of Sun City. Over 2000 requests have been made and we hope to fill those by the 20th of May. If you are still in need of a face mask, please contact your Neighborhood Watch block captain. There are over 45 sewers from Sun City and local communities and we have made over 4100 masks. We continue to get requests from health care providers and essential workers and are thankful to all the volunteers that have offered to help.â
âThis would NOT be happening at all if it wasn’t for these amazing ladiesâ, said Fitzpatrick.
According to Fitzpatrick, âWe are already 75% completed, and by the time we fill the orders from the residents, we will have made and delivered nearly 4,500 masksâ. He also stated, âOnce we fill the need with the residents, if the need is still there and the sewing group is still willing to sew, I plan to go back to the groups we helped initially and see if they need more masks. I can see the demand slowing down significantly but I don’t see it going away anytime soonâ.
Frostman added, âThere are many, many more sewers here in Sun City that did not help with the Huntley Strong project that sewed for whole neighborhoods, friends and families near and far away.â
Beth Fudala, Assistant Executive Director of Sun City Community Association of Huntley said, âWe are all very proud and excited to share the tremendous efforts of this group of sewers â some of whom live outside the community.â
