B’ville businesswoman makes masks for essential workers

By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

In mid-March, Cheryl Heller had just signed the lease on the building for her new business, the Savvy She Shed.

Then, everything changed when the novel coronavirus pandemic hit.

“I had signed the lease and went, ‘Oh my gosh, what have I done?’ I didn’t think this was going to happen,” said Heller, who previously owned the Savvy Chick in Baldwinsville.

With her new venture on hold, Heller pondered what she could do to stay connected to her community during this time of social distancing. Being civic-minded comes easy to Heller, who is the co-founder and chair of A Cause to Celebrate. The organization’s annual fundraising gala — which would have benefited the Cpl. Kyle R. Schneider Foundation — has been postponed to May 7, 2021.

“One morning I was on Facebook and I saw the ‘Baldwinsville Helping Baldwinsville – Covid-19’ group set up. A Cause to Celebrate is all about businesses giving back to the Baldwinsville community,” Heller said.

Heller saw posts in that Facebook group about people sewing facemasks for healthcare workers.

“I thought, ‘I could do that. I could make masks,’” she said. “I have so much fabric. This would be a great way for me to use up a lot of my scraps.”

Heller got to work, studying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for cloth masks.

“The very first pattern that I saw … was a CDC-approved mask. It’s a surgical style. It’s not the shaped N95 mask that Upstate is asking for,” she said. “The CDC pattern had the over-the-ear loops. I said to my husband, ‘This is crazy — this cannot be comfortable and it keeps falling off so you keep touching your face.’”

Heller’s husband, Bill, showed her a mask he uses in his workshop. The two loops of elastic went all the way around the head instead of pulling on the ears. Inspired by Bill’s mask, Heller modified her pattern to match. The masks she is making are three-ply cotton masks that are machine-washable and dryer-safe. They are large enough to fit over N95 masks, allowing healthcare workers to prolong the use of N95 masks.

“I posted on my personal Facebook page that I was going to make masks and literally my phone started blowing up,” Heller said. “I was sitting at my sewing machine very emotional and overwhelmed … at the need there was. All of these people — and most of them were women — just needed somebody to help them feel a little less anxious and a little more at peace.”

Heller is giving her masks to healthcare workers and first responders for free. She is charging other people who want a mask $5 — enough to cover the cost of the requester’s mask plus one for an essential worker.

“If you pay for your mask, it means I can give a mask,” she said. “Almost every single person has paid me above and beyond what they needed to.”

Several of Heller’s children and their spouses work in health care or as first responders.

“When I make these I’m thinking of them. I think, ‘would I put these masks on my kids?’” She said.

Heller has provided masks to pharmacists, nurses, and others in Central New York. She has fulfilled orders for Cayuga County Child Protective Services, Hillside Children’s Center, North Area Meals on Wheels and Baldwinsville Meals on Wheels. As word spreads on Facebook of her masks, Heller is even shipping masks to far-flung locations. She has had orders from Alabama and an Army base in South Korea.

“Most of them have been local, but I even sent 28 to a hospital in Florida to a nursing unit because they’ve been made to wear the same mask all week,” she said. “It blows my mind.”

Since she began making masks March 21, Heller has made more than 300 masks with the help of Bill and a small group of friends. She is keeping the operation small and not accepting fabric donations so only a few hands touch the masks before they reach their final destination.

After completion, Heller sprays each mask with Lysol and heat-treats it before placing it in a ziplock bag with a note about her and her husband’s social distancing practices and care instructions. She says a prayer over the masks before sending them on their way.

When this pandemic is over, Heller is hoping the people who have ordered masks from her can gather with her at the Savvy She Shed.

“I want it to be a place where women can get together and let down their hair and do a little soul therapy,” she said. “All I ask is when we are done when we are through this storm, come gather with me at the She Shed and introduce yourself. We can hug I can see that they are well.”

In the meantime, Heller encourages people to support A Cause to Celebrate’s 2020-21 beneficiary, the Cpl. Kyle R. Schneider Foundation.

“Even though the gala has been postponed, the need has not been postponed,” she said. Don’t forget the families and the military and the veterans that are going to be hit even harder right now than they normally are.”

Visit cplkyleschneider.com to learn more about the Kyle Schneider Foundation’s mission and how to help.

“The veterans and the military families that we were setting out to help support need us even more now. Many of them who were working aren’t working now [or] can’t access doctor’s appointments. They’re going to be feeling the hardship even more than some of us other families,” Heller said, adding, “Our healthcare workers — that’s our ‘military’ right now. They’re on the front lines.”