Cynthia Federico, a student at Stony Brook University, joined us on this episode of Lenard Team Connections. Since returning home, Cynthia has been sewing fabric masks for hospitals and essential workers.

Her generous nature is inspiring her entire community - keep reading to learn more, or listen to the full conversation here. 

Cynthia, so tell us where did you get the idea to start making the masks and how has it evolved over the last few weeks?

Cynthia: I started sewing a year ago, and I taught myself how to sew. A couple weeks ago, I saw everywhere on social media, that people really were in need of masks. So I decided that it would be a good idea to start doing it myself and help contribute. 

Are there others who are helping you either to make or distribute the masks?

Yes, there are. My mom and my neighbor Kayla Ilyichenko have been helping me at home. I really wouldn't be able to do it without them, because it's so chaotic with all the donations and orders I've been getting. And I have Carmel Quinn, who's been helping me with donations and my aunt who lives in Cold Spring Harbor, plus some more people that she's friends with have been helping me make donations.

How many masks are you making a day?

I try to make at least 50 to 100. Sometimes I'll make more if I can, it depends on my schoolwork load and what I'm doing throughout the day, but I have a goal of 100 a day. That's just myself and my neighbor. We both have sewing machines and we're busting them out during the day.

Where are the masks being delivered and how are they being used? 

I have different hospitals on Long Island that I've been donating to. One was St. Catherine's, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and a couple of other hospitals. There's so many, I honestly can't even keep track of them. More are going out the door every single day. I did some nursing homes, I'm going out of state now. Honestly whoever messages me on Facebook, I just try and get as many as I can.

You need you must need a lot of supplies for all of these masks. Where and how can people donate to your efforts?

At first I started to use my savings, but since I'm not working right now, it was getting a little expensive. So that brought the idea to sell masks (to the general public). With orders I've been getting, I've been using the proceeds to supply materials for myself the people that have been helping me.

It's hard right now to get elastic, so I've been trying to find people who can donate elastic to me. If people would like to like to donate Joanne's gift cards, Walmart gift cards, Amazon gift cards to help me purchase supplies, that'd be amazing.

To DONATE supplies or gift cards: Message Cynthia here.

Some of the people wearing the masks may have the N95 masks, but they're using your masks to make those last longer.

Yes. So a lot of the nurses only get a few a week, and you’re usually supposed to change them throughout the day, but they're not able to because we're running so low in hospitals. So they’ve been using my masks to cover them to make them last longer and keep them clean.

Another group of people that people aren't really even thinking about, are the staff that are in the hospitals that are supporting the doctors and the nurses. They're not getting the N95 masks. Well, they're getting some of your masks.

Yeah. And also, the New York Police Department. I've been giving them fabric masks and EMT workers - I just donated a lot to the Coney Island Department. So I've been trying to spread my horizon and donate to as many places as I can.

If people want to make masks themselves, where can you learn to do that?

There's a lot of tutorials on YouTube and Facebook. There’s one I’ve been sending to my volunteers. You can watch it here.  

One thing that I just want to say to you and I want to honor is that not only are you doing all of this and taking your own savings and all of that, but you're still donating to the Smithtown Children’s Foundation. 

At one point when it was a little slow, I had some money leftover and I decided that I was going to donate the money, and I did donate to the Smithtown Children's Foundation for families in need. And then I also donated into an iPad initiative for the LIJ hospital. They're buying iPads for patients to use.

What is the proper way to wear masks?

You want to make sure that they're not too loose on your face because you want to make sure nothing's going to get inside of them. So as long as they're nice and snug, it's good. And if you just put it over your nose, over your ears and then under your chin, you should be good. 

And they’re 100% cotton, so you can breathe through them and you can wash them. You can put them in the washing machine. You can put them in the dryer, or, some people are air drying them.