Number of Participants: 1
Hours Donated: 540
Value of Time Served: $4,563
Event Type: Civic & Community
Sport: Field Hockey
School: Shenendehowa High School
Date: May 29, 2020
Location:
Shenendehowa Central School District
NY, USA
About:
Kelly is a 24/7 field hockey player who has a passion for sewing. When COVID-19 hit we asked her to make our family some masks and posted them on FB to show off her tallents. She is looking to pursue fashion/design in college. Immediately she started having friends, teachers, and coaches reach out to ask if she could help them out and make some masks since they were going to need them.
Once people started offering her money she wanted to do this more as a way to help the community so she told people if they wanted to contribute gift cards to Joanns and places for supplies she would keep sewing till she ran out of supplies and here we are today.
Not having field hockey and her teamates 7 days a week was starting to emotionally take a toll. It was such a huge part of her life to this point and by now we would be traveling every weekend for events. So this just made her so happy and helped her be connected with everyone.
She started in March and many of yards of fabric later and over 500 masks she is still going.
Her Field Hockey Coach Shawn Eggleston has even spread the word through the coaching community as we are starting to see guildlines to resume some interactions on the fields that Kelly is willing to get some masks out to coaches and anyplayers who might need one to do what we can to be togther safely again.
Memorial Day the local news station who heard about her story came to the house to interview her and my post response was a result of her school posting the story.
She has contributed to local organizations and sent out secret packages to nurses in need. Some who just need the more comforatble strap version that she created to wear outside of work.
Next she’s going to try her hand at the slip on covering that looks like the buff on “Survior” to see if for athletes it provides easier breathing using a cool dry material.
Unfortunately it has been hard to include others physically to help her with social distancing but her teammates and their families keep the word spreading and keep the donations coming. Field Hockey families have the most special bond. No matter your team or your region once you are friends you are family. Not only has her Shenehdehowa FH family supported her but players from ADK, Dutchess, Lakeland/Hudson Valley. As you can see she is wearing her USA Field Hockey shirt from an event at a futures program in her news interview so who knows maybe the team will need some masks to travel 🙂 People seem to think Field Hockey and design are not a combination in college but I promise you she will find a way to make that happen.
She sews for a minimum of 3 hours a day and probably most days spends equal to that time cutting out material, putting together orders, and searching the internet for fabric which is not easy to get. She even started personalizing for people and one family who had a child who needed a mask but would not wear it, she used fabric markers and made a specialized mask just his size with Thomas the Train. It takes about 15 minutes to sew per mask.
