A divine duty
Ann Shehan on Thursday opens the container she keeps at the end of her Miles Avenue driveway to show the individually wrapped masks she makes and gives away for free. She has given away more than 2,400 masks with at least 130 more ready to go.
DEVIN WEEKS/Press
Ann Shehan, of Hayden, demonstrates how the loops tie on the fabric masks she makes and gives out for free during a visit to her Miles Avenue home on Thursday. Shehan leaves a container of masks at the end of her driveway to provide for those in need.
Thank-you letters, notes of appreciation and other tokens of gratitude have appeared on the table at the end of Ann Shehan's driveway, where she leaves a box filled with free handmade masks for anyone to take.
HAYDEN — When the Big Guy in the Sky sends a message, it's good to listen.
As the coronavirus pandemic began to rear its ugly head, Ann Shehan had the idea to make fabric face masks but didn't have the money for fabric and elastic.
This divine message continued to persist.
"The idea came back to me and I wrote it off again, and it came back to me and I wrote it off again," Shehan said Thursday. "I finally decided I had to stop ignoring Him, so I just started making masks."
Shehan was prepared to set up a station in front of a grocery store to give away the masks she'd made. But at the suggestion of her husband, Jim, she's been leaving them in a box at the end of their driveway for anyone and everyone to take as needed.
"Since it wasn't really my idea to make the masks, I wasn't going to charge for them," she said.
Ann used fabric left over from different projects to make her first batches of masks. They're double-sided, reversible and attach to ears using fabric loops, but the ties can be replaced with shoelaces or longer string to wrap around the head. She makes them in four sizes, for children and adults.
"I made masks for two months," she said, smiling. "I didn't realize I had that much fabric sitting there in the house."
Since the start, Ann has given away 2,452 masks with at least another 130 made and ready to go. She's given about 70 to Holy Family Catholic School, 160 to the Coeur d'Alene School District and 388 to St. Vincent de Paul.
"They were giving me good deals on fabric," she said with a laugh. "Everything I use now I get at thrift stores."
The washed and individually wrapped masks are on a table at the end of the driveway on east Miles Avenue, beneath a rainbow umbrella.
Some who have taken Ann up on her free masks have left tokens of appreciation.
"People leave me donations in the box sometimes," she said. "Sometimes people leave me money in the box. Somebody gave me a loaf of sourdough bread, someone's given me chocolate chip cookies, a couple women donated fabric to me."
Thank you notes have also appeared, in the form of glittery greeting cards, notes scrawled on napkins and any way people can share their gratitude.
"It feels great," she said.
Ann strongly believes that the masks are helpful and said she plans to make masks as long as she has fabric and keep giving them away at her little stand, even into winter.
Those in need of a mask are welcome to stop by and grab one during daylight hours. Just look for the colorful umbrella.
