AMERICAN FORK, Utah — An imposing navy blue Yukon XL, its diesel engine chugging, pulled to the front of the line Tuesday in a drive-thru lane at the closed Deseret Industries thrift store in American Fork.
A teeny, powder blue Mini Cooper quietly pulled in right behind the Yukon.
The vehicles contrasted sharply, but the drivers were single-minded. Each wore a mask under smiling eyes while a ProjectProtect team member handed them a kit to sew 100 medical-grade masks for Utah’s health care workers.
ProjectProtect handed out 10,000 kits to volunteers of all shapes, sizes, genders and races on Tuesday at five Deseret Industries locations. The volunteers will return 1 million completed masks to the same locations on Saturday. The process will repeat for four additional weeks, producing 5 million masks.
“I’ve been waiting all weekend to get my hands on a kit,” said American Fork’s Cassidi Mecham, who pulled over for an interview with a masked reporter. “It’s like, ‘Can I have them now?’ Just to be able to help and, where we’ve been quarantined, to be able to do something, is great.”
Mecham picked up four kits, one for herself, one for her daughter, Melyssa, and one each for her sister and her niece who live in Alpine. Melyssa was taking a sewing class at American Fork High School when school closed because of the pandemic and had been disappointed not to have the big sewing project she expected.
As she got ready to pull away, her mother turned to Melyssa in the passenger seat and said, “Sewing party!”
The kit pickup worked like clockwork in American Fork. Vehicles bunched up at times in the right and left turn lanes on 500 East, but they moved swiftly through three drive-thru lanes on the side of the Deseret Industries building.
Most of those handing out kits in American Fork on Tuesday morning were from University of Utah Health and Intermountain Healthcare, two of the founding partners of ProjectProtect. Their front-line caregivers will use the completed masks to protect themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To see all of these volunteers here and excited and ready to help, it makes you tear up a little bit, to see our community work together,” said Megan Bailey, a project manager at University of Utah Health. “We’re not going to let anything bad happen to each other. Watching this today, we should all realize there is so much kindness in this world.”
A handful of Utah health care workers have been infected by COVID-19, according to Dr. Angela Dunn, epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health. None have died.
The state’s front-line caregivers use 50,000 to 70,000 masks per day, so the 5 million masks will provide a supply that will last 70 to 100 days.
Another person handing out the masks on Tuesday morning was Sister Reyna I. Aburto, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Latter-day Saint Charities is the project’s third founding partner.
“I wanted to see this myself, and I wanted to help,” Sister Aburto said. “I wanted to say ‘Thank you’ personally. We are so impressed with the response. I think it’s wonderful to see the willingness people have to help each other and follow the Savior’s example. This is going to be a blessing for everyone as they serve each other.”
On an average Saturday, a total of 2,000 donors pull through the drive-thrus at the five Deseret Industries in American Fork, Harrisville, Layton, Murray and Riverton. They come to drop off used furniture, books, clothes and pots and pans.
On Tuesday, the same five drive-thrus handled about five times the traffic in just five hours.
“We have some logistics geniuses here,” said Dan Liljenquist, Intermountain Healthcare senior vice president and chief strategy officer. “It goes faster because nobody is dropping off a couch, but it’s impressive to hand out enough kits to make 200,000 masks at every one of these locations.”
Nubia Thayer’s husband, Josh, drove her from Salem to collect her kit.
“I want to sew,” she said. “I want to help.”
She’s put together a team to help her make the 100 masks. One team member is famous, professional bull rider Steven Woolsey, a seven-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo.
Nubia dove right into sewing when she got home on Tuesday. Josh and Steve helped organize the kit. On Wednesday, Nubia’s birthday, her team will include two more seamstresses, a young friend and Josh’s aunt.
She and Cassidi Mecham say the kit makes the sewing simple.
“I can do more than 100,” Nubia Thayer said, “but there are so many people who want to help.”
In fact, 10,000 volunteers signed up for all the available kits in 62 hours from Friday morning to Sunday night. ProjectProtect organizers say they need 10,000 volunteers a week to reach their goal. Registration for next week’s kits will open up today or tomorrow.
Those interested should visit ProjectProtect.health, where they will find a link to register.
Cassidi Mecham plans to volunteer again.
“I’ll be checking the website today to make sure I don’t miss a spot,” she said.
