Sew much love

Cathy Kobs knew the need for cloth face masks for students in her community would be big, so when she went camping this summer, she took her sewing machine with her.

"It was comfortable," she said Friday. "You can't be outside all the time."

Humble and big-hearted are the members of Lemons of Love Northwest, who presented nearly 1,100 kid-friendly masks to Borah, Bryan and Sorensen elementary schools during the first days back in session this week. Todd Chapman, Chapman Financials, partnered with Lemons of Love to provide lanyards for every student.

"So many kids, especially in a couple of those schools, they don’t have it all going on in the first place," Kobs said. "They need stuff like this, people who care."

Kobs, who co-founded the Northwest chapter of the charitable nonprofit with friend Sue Edwards in 2016, was a teacher in Post Falls for 35 years. You bet, she loves the kids.

"You just have that soft spot in your heart," she said.

Lemons of Love, COVID-19 Relief Fund Grant recipient, has been busy sewing, along with its other mission of delivering care packages to cancer patients to put a little bright spot in their difficult journeys. The members — including Kobs, Joy Richards, Edwards and Mary Emmett — previously donated more than 700 masks to local nursing homes, child care centers, fire stations, police and sheriff’s departments, the Kootenai Humane Society and other nonprofits.

“It is abundantly evident that this was a project done out of love for our community and our children," Bryan Elementary Principal Kristin Gorringe said. "The picture I have in my head of the individuals sewing these masks truly warms my heart."

She said she was the lucky one who got to hand out the masks to students.

"Each classroom set has a unique pattern of its own," Gorringe said. "That was the highlight for the children.”