County officials engage community during coronavirus pandemic

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to bring people together.

“We literally are running the world’s biggest sewing circle that you’ve ever seen in your life,” Somerset County, Pa. Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes half-joked.

Commissioners in Somerset County are heading a project to recruit county sewers to make face masks for those in need during the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Tokar-Ickes said the county’s EMA director and emergency response agencies  told  commissioners that they did not have enough face masks.

Somerset County Commissioner Gerald Walker explained the county never had a huge supply of masks for many places such as nursing homes, which usually don’t require masks during daily operations. The county also had a limited, outdated supply of N95 masks, according to Commissioner Colleen Dawson, who added that each EMS service received no more than 90 masks.

“If you put one mask on the patient and one mask on each of the responders, that equals 30 trips,” she said. “That’s not many.”

In the rural county in southwestern Pennsylvania, Dawson said the commissioners knew it would be challenging to obtain more masks. 

“The federal and state governments, whenever they have additional masks, they go to the counties that have the higher numbers [of cases],” she said.

Commissioners Dawson and Tokar-Ickes found a sewer on Facebook and decided to connect with her and make this a county project. They ordered three palettes of 100 percent cotton material, thread and elastic to distribute to residents interested in sewing. 

“The county has been instrumental in launching this project and mobilizing the community as we move into this public health crisis,” Tokar-Ickes said.

With the first order of material, the group hopes to produce 21,000 masks for the community. The masks will not be used in medical settings, instead distributed to nursing homes, emergency responders, county agencies and other non-profit organizations such as mobile food banks.

“It became apparent to us early on that we could not depend on the federal government or the state government to get us the materials we need here in rural southwestern Pennsylvania,” Dawson said.

The county recruited 400 individuals incorporating church groups, sewing clubs and other organizations into the project. Dawson said they are splitting the materials into bags to distribute to those who want to sew. The commissioners have struggled finding more elastic but are receiving donations from many individuals and community vendors. 

“There was no doubt in my mind if we put the word out that we needed help that our community would respond,” Tokar-Ickes said, adding that in these unprecedented times, county officials need to turn to their communities.

“County government has to work in close partnership with its community through this crisis and any other,” she said.

Meanwhile in Montgomery County, Md., Councilmember Will Jawando is also interacting with his community to help local residents in a time of fear.

Jawando decided to hold daily virtual story times through live sessions on Facebook and Instagram until the coronavirus crisis is over.

He said his goal is to continue to provide children with early childhood development, education and literacy, while also providing 30 minutes of relief for parents.

In a county with 21 public libraries for 1.1 million people, Jawando said story time is a big component missing with libraries closed during the pandemic.

“I think our job as elected officials, a big part of that is just trying to be there for people when they need help,” he said.

Jawando is working to make the virtual sessions interactive by asking his viewers questions through the social media platforms, including a shout-out section each day.

“They love to watch the screen and see their name coming,” he said.

Through a partnership with a local arts organization, children who are tuning in are also completing art exercises in addition to listening to Jawando’s storytelling.

“I’ve gotten so many pictures that have been sent in of kids watching story time but also participating in the art exercise so that’s been very cool as well,” he said.

Each session has an audience of between 2,000 and 5,000 from residents in Montgomery County as well as from viewers throughout the country.

“I’ve started to recognize some of the names,” he said. “We’ve got a dedicated crowd but there’s still people coming in new each day.”

Jawando said he would encourage county officials to think about both large ways and discreet ways to help people in times of crisis. 

“It’s not solving all the problems but with all the anxiety that is going on right now and all the repercussions, many of which we don’t even know yet because this is unprecedented, I think there’s a lot of room for us to step in and try to just provide some relief both in big and small ways,” he said.