ATLANTA — It's a good cause that brought women across Georgia together. More than 30 women created face masks during the pandemic, and just last week, they met for the first time.
These ladies, including Magda Gomez, converted their living rooms into sewing shops.
“I had people cutting material, bringing material, dropping off material at my concierge. We had materials galore," Gomez said.
They used those materials to turn into masks to protect others from COVID-19. It was an assembly line from afar for those women who lived across Georgia and had different professions.
“Out of this situation - a bad situation - we made some new friends and that’s fantastic," Gomez added.
Just last week, they met for the first time, after cutting and sewing more than 1,000 masks at a time when they were hard to find.
Some are realtors, others are retired, but all had the same mission.
“We talked about our adventures, the obstacles we went through with our machines. My machine is a $200 machine but we had people in our group with $2,000 machines that were very professional," she said.
Gomez began this movement with a NexDoor post. During the height of the pandemic, she looking for other people who, like her, wanted to help.
“We knew the scientists had to do their thing to be able to help us in the future," Gomez said, "but what can we do as humanity instead of being home doing absolutely nothing?”
She found others, like Christy De Leon, who were willing to do what they could.
“I don’t know how to sew but I did cut a lot of material," De Leon said. "I went to every single Lowe’s and Home Depot in the Marietta area trying to get some wire."
Each one of them put their different talents together for the same purpose.
“Blanca helped me with some of the supplies for instance pipe cleaners, and Sue helped me with fabric," another one of the women listed.
While this was their first time meeting face-to-face, Gomez says it sure did not feel that way.
“It was wonderful," Gomez said. "We have our WhatsApp group and it was great to meet them. To hug each other.”
Materials turned into masks and strangers turned friends.