The Pulaski County Cooperative Extension Service empowers communities to respond to challenges they face and reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic has been no different.    One of the first challenges identified with the COVID-19 was the shortage of masks available to all people in the community.   The Pulaski County Extension Service provided materials, threads and elastic with the directions for making the mask from CDC, to interested sewers in the county.   More than 3,500 face masks were made by these volunteers in the county and given out to individuals seeking masks and donated to other companies and organizations that needed several masks for their employees.  

        These same volunteers are still making face masks when someone calls in that they need more masks.    Another concern from the county was that health care facilities throughout the state did not have enough personal protective equipment for frontline workers to do their jobs during the pandemic. The Pulaski County Extension staff collaborated with Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) across the state to help address the lack of personal protective equipment.    In the Lake Cumberland area of District 5, the Somerset KCTCS Campus used their 3-D printers to make headbands for face shields that Extension agents assembled while following CDC recommendations for social distancing and proper sanitizing.

        During the months of April and May, nine Extension agents assembled more than 3,000 face shields to help meet this need.   KCTCS quality checked and delivered the shields to health care facilities throughout the state.   In a time of uncertainty and need, Extension has once again proven that we are well positioned to efficiently get the needed equipment into the hands of the people who need them and can be a trusted partner in addressing emerging needs.