Medina woman has made 1,200 masks, many for healthcare workers and COs
Hannah Pollard has turned shutdown into a mission
Provided photos: Hannah Pollard sits at her sewing machine, where she makes 50 to 75 masks a day for local residents and organizations.
MEDINA – When the government ordered the shutdown of all non-essential businesses, Hannah Pollard was no longer able to sell her crafts at her booth in Filomena’s Favorites.
So she turned her talent for sewing into making masks, which are now required when social distancing isn’t possible.
To date, she has made 1,200 masks for men, women and children.
Pollard, who retired in 2016 from Pollard Insurance, learned to sew from her mother Jane Pollard 20 years ago. Jane was a quilter and taught Hannah how to quilt by hand.
“I really enjoyed sewing and quilting so much, I opened a craft booth at Filomena’s,” Pollard said. “A day after the store was forced to close, someone said I should make masks, because people were going to want them.”
Pollard made a pattern and she was in business.
The first masks she made she offered for free to any healthcare worker, and they came in waves, she said.
The next ones she offered to corrections officers, and those masks also were in demand.
Then she started dealing with businesses and she was soon selling out of masks for $6 each.
She now has a four to five-day wait to fill orders for her masks. She has hit a roadblock, however, with not being able to buy any more elastic.
She ordered 400 yards online and tracking shows them at a post office in Rochester, but they can’t find them.
These are some of the children’s masks which Hannah Pollard is making in whimsical patterns.
“So now I’m using ribbon,” Pollard said.
Pollard is making between 50 and 75 masks a day, which she ships all over the United States, although her focus is on local orders. She has also shared her pattern with others.
She said she has other friends who are sewing caps and gowns for healthcare workers.
