For Carol Conway of Locust Grove, providing masks for local healthcare professionals enables her to fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

  Conway runs the Henry County chapter of Sewing Masks for Area Hospitals. The nonprofit organization, launched last month in Atlanta, works to create masks and mask covers for doctors, nurses and first responders.

  “As of this week, we have almost 650 masks delivered, and requests for hundreds around Henry,” said Conway on Saturday. “We received an enormous donation of 1,300 pounds of elastic.”

  She said the Henry group also received eight banker boxes with about 200 pounds of fabric from the Atlanta chapter.

  Currently, the Henry group has 338 members, some of whom are responsible for sewing the masks while others secure supplies or deliver and pick them up. Conway recently stepped back from the organization due to health issues, but continues to post updates on the group’s Facebook page.

  Conway acknowledged that SMAH’s early days presented a challenge for the group’s administrators, as they worked to produce masks to help others cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

  “As admins of the Henry chapter, yes, we were struggling to find fabric and materials for the first two weeks,” said Conway. “Any one of us could be found driving miles to small fabric stores all over the Atlanta area – Walmart, Joann Fabric, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby – buying fabric, thread, and elastic we could find and bringing it all to the volunteer seamstresses. We also made sure that we weren’t buying too much, as we knew other people were doing masks around the state.”

  She said the Henry group is currently in need of donated storage space as they provide masks locally.

  Janeth Barahona, an administrator for the Henry group, is seeking clear shower curtains in order to make more masks. Barahona, who is deaf, said volunteers have made more than 400 masks for local public-safety workers.

  “I’ve had a lot of people who have said they would like to buy these masks,” she said. “We’re also accepting donations so that we can make more masks.”

  Barahona also leads Girl Scout Troop No. 19853 in Conyers. She said the seven girls in her group – including six children of deaf parents – have been active in helping to sew the masks.

  Barahona said SMAH members in Henry are motivated by a common goal of serving others. To that end, she is working to create masks featuring clear plastic to cover a user’s mouth, to facilitate lip-reading for others in the deaf community.

  “I also wanted show that deaf people could help with this as well,” said Barahona. “I’m hopeful that deaf and hearing people will find out about it and want to help as well.”

  Kayla Hittig is one of three founders for the Atlanta-based SMAH. She and co-founders Kirsten Hawkins and Gina Livingstone created a Facebook page last month for the organization.

  The purpose of the page, said Hittig, was “to create an online platform to connect Atlanta-area sewists to healthcare facilities to distribute masks.”

  “We have eight groups in Georgia and four outside the state,” said Hittig. “It’s all volunteer-based. We’re pretty sure we have 400-500 [volunteers], probably more than that. We utilize Facebook to communicate with volunteers.

    “It’s been amazing to see the community come together,” she added. “In the Atlanta area, we’ve distributed 25,000 masks to 80 facilities as of Friday.”

  Hittig commended Conway for working to generate involvement in the project locally.

  “It’s fantastic that Carol took on the leadership role,” said Hittig. “She’s really able to help facilities in that area, and sewists in Henry County can help facilities in the area by sewing cloth masks.”

  SMAH is now working on creating masks to be used by individuals with special-needs. Hittig added that Henry County is “leading the charge” with that aspect of the masks endeavor.

  For more information, visit SMAHAtlanta.org. The group is also available via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.