(Submitted photo/Angela Bishop)

By Nicole Reis

SEWING MACHINE DONATION

The cost of receiving donations and performing a public service

Jun 2, 2020 | 2:34 PM

Métis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S) donated 15 industrial-style sewing machines to Masked Makers Masks on May 29. Masked Makers is a Saskatoon group of 16 seamstress who undertook the philanthropic gesture of sewing non-medical grade masks for the community. However the project has initiated such demand where some group members are feeling pressure to produce due to the groups’s overwhelming demand.

Former Green Lake resident and Aboriginal lawyer with the Federal Department of Justice, Angela Bishop is leading the project and told meadowlakeNOW she is extremely grateful for the generous donation. However as her group is now equipped with the ability to sew quickly using better quality equipment, the gift came with a psychological impact for some.

“It puts pressure on the group,” she said. “We’ve done over 5,000 masks and if that were translated into resale value, it would be about $50,000 of a contribution into the community.”

When the gifts were given to the Masked Makers on May 29 through MN-S, Bishop made it clear to her group, she does not want seamstresses to get paid for their work as the group’s original intent was to engage in a philanthropic gesture. They can produce as many or as little as each individual seamstress chooses to.

“The machines were not accepted as payment or an expectation to do more work but tools to help put masks on public faces and will continue to produce 500 masks per week,” she said.

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Bishop needs approximately 15 minutes to make a mask and spends approximately 35-40 hours per week on material procurement, distribution and sewing while actively working on legal negotiation sessions through Zoom. Bishop said community members have come to her wishing to make additional donations.

“People are giving a lot of [their] time and we only have so much capacity to store things and we have unused credits and I believe we have enough to make 5,000 masks,” she said.

While the group has committed to producing 500 masks per week and anything above is stored for a potential second wave.

(Submitted photo/Angela Bishop)

Bishop disabled her Facebook capacity to receive messages for individual requests asking for non-medical masks due to the overwhelming demand. Bishop’s sister Gwen King, now living in Meadow Lake said there is a high demand but is doing the best she can when she has time to focus her efforts locally and to the North.

“We’ve got a lot of work coming up and it looks like we have 1,100 masks and sometimes it can feel like [pressure] but to me it’s about providing and helping the best way we can,” King said. “I love making masks for other people so to me, it comes naturally that I would want to help.”

The material and equipment donations has proven to be helpful to the group as they were using older sewing machines to get through demand. The group was happy producing non-medical masks for public use and the donations have been graciously accepted in helping to ramp up production.

“It was a really nice gesture in trying to help and was a stress relief for a lot who are being helped who don’t have to worry about procuring a mask,” King said.

She added a box of 50 disposable masks was notices of $120 and is convinced making masks is far superior. When King isn’t working from home, she says she’s making the best use of her time making masks for the community and staff members in her office.

Gwen said it is the natural way of Indigenous and Métis people to want to help one another and to come together as a community to ensure each other’s safety without expecting anything in return.

“To me, the nicest thing is making sure people are comfortable and not scared and they’re happy to wear their mask and feeling a little safer,” she said.

King said she was grateful to receive the donation as she has never spent more than $200 on a sewing machine. Sewing has kept her and her daughter’s mind occupied since business lockdowns began in March.

A statement from MN-S, said new machines would not only make the mask process easier but could help double capacity and MN-S Health Minister Marg Friesen determined what needed to be done. The gift brings MN-S’ total contributions of equipment and supplies to more than $34,000.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722