Laundry services workers at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics are stocked with face masks, thanks in part to a unique production line at Oaknoll Retirement Residence.

“If you walk down the hall, you might see a pile of serged fabric in front of one door, and then an hour later it’s all ironed and ready in front of someone else’s door,” Oaknoll resident Pat Lehnertz says. “It just keeps moving down until it gets to me.”

Lehnertz and Mary Mixdorf worked together for 30 years in the Iowa City Community School District as home economics teachers, teaching thousands of kids how to sew.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the world and the University of Iowa campus ramped up planning, an informal request for people who could sew face masks was made during a meeting. Rod Lehnertz, senior vice president for finance and operations, immediately thought of his mother and her longtime friend.

“My son asked if we could make 200 masks, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that will take the two of us forever,’” Pat Lehnertz says. “That’s when we got other people involved and developed a production line.”

The two women mobilized their fellow Oaknoll Retirement Residence community members, and along with the masks for laundry service workers, also made dozens for the local community food bank and Oaknoll staff.

“Everyone was happy to help,” Lehnertz says. “The laundry workers are really unsung heroes behind the lines handling all the linens. It’s neat that we can help them out.”

Before they started sewing, Lehnertz and Mixdorf spent hours scouring the internet for the perfect pattern.

“There are a lot of patterns out there, and some are really bad,” Lehnertz says. “There were some things that we were looking for. It needed to be breathable and big enough to cover an N95 mask if necessary.”

They also wanted their masks to have a strong nosepiece, which they achieved by using plant ties.

The next challenge was supplies. Oaknoll residents are not leaving the residences, so Mixdorf’s church, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Iowa City, stepped up, delivering fabric, elastic, and an industrial-size spool of plant ties.

“And when we ran out of elastic, Oaknoll residents emptied out their sewing boxes,” Lehnertz says.

The elastic shortage also resulted in a funny story. Lehnertz heard that a local store would be getting in a shipment, so she asked her daughter-in-law to be there when the store opened. When she got there, another man was also there waiting. They raced each other to the aisle with the elastic only to discover they were both buying the product for the Oaknoll group.

About 10 residents at Oaknoll have contributed to the mask making, including five sewers and five who have jumped in on odd jobs such as cutting fabric, elastic, and plant ties, and performing quality control. They each work in their own apartment and leave their finished part of the project in front of the next person’s door or on a table in a community room. They can complete 35 to 40 masks each day.

Debby Zumbach, UI associate vice president and director of business services and purchasing, says she is grateful to the Oaknoll community and everyone who supplied them.

“We need to protect our staff so they can ensure we get linen to UI Hospitals & Clinics for the care of patients,” Zumbach says. “Our staff are a critical segment of the entire process, and with the added protection, we were able to relieve some of the fears they had in the workplace.”

Lehnertz says making the masks may have resulted in one silver lining for the Oaknoll residents during the COVID-19 quarantine.

“It’s been a good experience for our group even though we are far apart from one other,” Lehnertz says. “It’s funny because none of us were really close before except Mary and I. I think a lot of us will be friends when this is all over and we can be closer than six feet.”