Westminster College announced Wednesday it would be contributing to the statewide Project Protect, joining efforts to sew five million masks for frontline health care workers. Project managers are encouraging sewing volunteers to use colored thread reflecting their school colors, so nurses and health care workers know where their face coverings are from. (Photo courtesy Westminster College)
Westminster College announced Wednesday it would be contributing to the statewide Project Protect, joining efforts to sew five million masks for frontline health care workers. The project is a coalition of all Utah colleges and universities aimed to “Sew Your True Colors.”
Tens of thousands of volunteers across the state have already sewn three million masks for health care workers. Now, higher education institutions are joining to “take the project to the finish line.”
“Supporting Project Protect is supporting the thousands of Westminster nursing alumni who are heroes in health care across Utah,” said Sheryl Steadman, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, in a press release. “Westminster nurses are leaders and contributors in the most critical areas of practice so we are grateful for all that is being done to protect them.”
Project managers are encouraging sewing volunteers to use colored thread reflecting their school colors, so nurses and health care workers know where their face coverings are from. Westminster is asking for volunteers within its community to join in Project Protect, sewing purple medical-grade masks to donate.
Volunteers can sign up through ProjectProtect.health to receive a sewing kit, which includes the materials needed except for thread. Volunteers can pick up their kits of 100 masks at any of the six donation sites, returning them by May 30.
Each mask should take five to 10 minutes to sew, for “a total of 10 to 15 hours of sewing time over 11 days,” according to a press release. While volunteers don’t need a high level of sewing skills to participate, project coordinators encourage they have a sewing machine, thread, scissors and pins.
Project Protect is a collaboration between the University of Utah, Intermountain Healthcare, Latter-day Saint Charities and several Utah nonprofits.
