OVERVIEW

PANDEMIC RESPONSE

When the coronavirus initially hit in 2020, the women of Mercy Sews immediately started up their machines to "sew for mercy" for frontline workers desperately in need of masks. Word spread of Mercy Sews’ efforts and we received requests for assistance from public and private institutions in and around Boston. Mercy Sews provided more than 2,000 masks to hospitals and health care facilities such as Mass General Hospital, Brockton Hospital, Brockton Veterans Administration Hospital, Suffolk County Women's Correctional Facility, the South Shore Visiting Nurses Association, as well as other institutions including local nursing homes, hospices, food banks.

The mask shortage eventually eased in Massachusetts but was still a problem in other states, especially the Navajo Nation in Arizona, where poverty is rampant, health care is wanting, and multi-generational families live together, accelerating the spread of the disease. Having heard of the Navajo's great need, Mercy Sews coordinated with St. Michael's Franciscan Mission to provide masks (and rosaries) to the heart of Navajo Country. Because the mission was already providing boxes of food to the poor, the masks were distributed at the same time to those in greatest need. We shipped more than 1,000 masks to the Navajo Nation at a critical time. The mask shortage has now eased, so our ministry has returned to sewing dresses and other articles of clothing for the Pygmy children of the Central African Republic.

Thank you notes from some of the organizations we helped are posted below.

Thank YOU to mercy sews!

Suffolk County House of Correction

St. Michael's Franciscan Mission (Navajo Nation, AZ)

Hanover Visiting Nurses Association

Dear Mercy Sews:

I would like to thank Mercy Sews on behalf of Sheriff W. Tompkins, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, and myself, for your generous contribution of homemade masks. The health and safety of our staff and the men and women remanded to our custody is of the utmost importance to us, and your contribution to our department means we have enough masks for all our folks to have spares while their primary ones are cleaned. It also allows us to distribute masks to those who were recently released, so that they are not left without one when they leave.

It is heartening that in these trying times, there are benevolent individuals such as yourselves to use your time and own resources to make homemade masks

Hanover Visiting Nurses Association

St. Michael's Franciscan Mission (Navajo Nation, AZ)

Hanover Visiting Nurses Association

Dear Mercy Sews:

Thank you for making the many face masks with love, compassion, talent…during these challenging and concerning times. They met the needs of so many in the community. The recipients ranged from teens to elders, both male and female long term residents to some new to the community. The constant across all the ranges was all were truly grateful.
With sincere gratitude and appreciation,

--Doreen Zeller and the Hanover Visiting Nurses

St. Michael's Franciscan Mission (Navajo Nation, AZ)

Dear Mercy Sews:

May the Most High give you peace.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude for your contribution to Saint Michaels Mission and the surrounding Missions. Your donation of fabric face masks, Rosaries, and Divine Mercy images are very important to our community, especially at this difficult time. It will help the continuity of our commitment to serving the community in the Navajo Reservation by providing health protection as well as spiritual and emotional support to our people.

We pray for your ministry Mercy Sews and all the families that contribute to this ministry as we journey together in faith, bringing the light where there is darkness, hope where there is despair, and mercy and compassion in a world in need of healing.

We are deeply thankful for your support and feel deeply blessed by your commitment to help the people who are in need and the most vulnerable. May the Blessed Mother, Mary Mother of Mankind, intercede for all of us.

May God bless you.

Sincerely,

Father Edgardo Diaz

Franciscan Friars—St. Michaels Mission

VA Boston Health Care System

Cranberry Hospice, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

St. Michael's Franciscan Mission (Navajo Nation, AZ)

Dear Mercy Sews:

On behalf of the Brockton Campus—VA Boston HCS patients and staff, we would like to extend our appreciation to you for your donation of homemade masks. It is through the efforts of community partners like you that allow us to continue the quality care and services that we seek to provide our deserving Veterans. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you again for future events. Thank you for your continued support.

--Jason V. Gray. Chief, Voluntary Service and Recreation Therapy,

VA Boston Healthcare System

Cranberry Hospice, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

Dear Mercy Sews:

We can’t begin to thank you and your wonderful organization enough. Through the kind and generous offering of a dear lifelong friend, Barbara Watson, I learned about Mercy Sews. What a beautiful ministry you have created. And what an amazing opportunity for us to be able to offer our Cranberry Hospice Families homemade facemasks in this time of uncertainty and fear. With your generous donation of over 100 masks, our nurses will be able to provide some comfort to the caregivers of our hospice patients at home. We are uplifted by your kindness, generosity and caring. Thank You for who You are, and what You are doing.

--Karen Foster, Volunteer Coordinator, Cranberry Hospice, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Plymouth, MA

Aspire Health Alliance

Cranberry Hospice, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

Dear Mercy Sews:

We have been able to provide facemasks, at least initially, for our staff. They will have to re-use them and so if we can replace with a cloth mask that will help us preserve our PPE as much as possible. We also wanted to make sure our clients, many of whom have more complex mental health issues along with financial stress, had facemasks both to help them limit the spread of infection and to help with another layer of protection for our staff. Thank you so much for your donation of cloth masks, we are distributing them now and are so grateful. I hope you and yours stay safe and well during this crisis.

--Anthony Sheehan, President and CEO, Aspire Health Alliance, Plymouth, MA