The COVID-19 Virus closed many businesses and placed a strain on health care providers worldwide, creating a high demand for personal protective equipment for health care workers.  With such a request on personal protection equipment, items such as isolation gowns were not available.  During this time, the Lewis County Extension Office was contacted by Primary Plus, asking if we had anyone that could sew isolation gowns for their nine offices in Lewis, Mason, Fleming, Bracken, Greenup, Carter, and Boyd Counties.   During the same time, the Lewis County Health Department was having the same problem of purchasing isolation gowns, so they asked if Lewis County volunteers could sew isolation gowns for them as well.  

Since all offices for Primary Plus are in District 1, agents asked the counties that had Master Clothing Volunteers and Homemakers that could sew the isolation gowns.  Agents from Lewis, Greenup, Fleming, Johnson, Bath, Morgan, Bracken, and Robertson Counties said they had volunteers that would sew the dresses.  4-H Agent Sherrill Bentley acted as a coordinator with Primary Plus and the other extension offices to make the gowns.   Agent Nicole Giwshiri coordinated sewing efforts with Clothing Volunteers in Bath County - Mary Ann Lewis and Joy Warren - as well as Master Clothing Volunteer Aggie Fink in Montgomery County.  Primary Plus and the Health Department provided the fabric and other supplies to make the gowns.  There are still 15 gowns in the making, so when all are completed, there will be 266 gowns provided by the Homemakers in District 1.  Providing the shifts to Primary Plus and the Health Department has made it possible for them to provide their workers with isolation gowns, which helps protect them from getting sick and enables them to continue to treat ill patients.

Besides providing gowns for those facilities in other counties, Bath County volunteers partnered with the county judge-executive to provide face coverings to those who needed them. Our county Judge-Executive contacted the Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent to organize Bath County Extension Homemakers to sew the face coverings per the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agent purchased the fabric and elastic and cut the material to the length needed to sew together with county staff workers' help. A call to action was given to the citizens of Bath County. Over 50 people provided their sewing expertise to provide over 400 face coverings to distribute.