Making a Difference From Home
![Person wearing a clear mask.](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossless,ret_img/https://nexus.jefferson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Mask-scaled.jpg)
For the last decade, Jefferson College of Nursing student Sophie Ferguson and her mom, Michele, have made burp cloths from their home. However, when COVID-19 hit, they both realized they needed to shift their business to address the nationwide shortage of masks.
Since March, they have sown some 750 cloth masks in a variety of styles, including food, animal and sports prints. Most recently, they began creating clear masks to help people with hearing impairments.
“I saw a girl on a Facebook video communicating with her mother who was wearing a clear mask,” says Ferguson, who learned to sew from her mom and honed her skills in a high school fashion design class. “The girl was deaf, and she needed to read lips. After watching this interaction, I decided to add these masks to my repertoire for anyone who needs them.”
![Mask with fireworks prints](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossless,ret_img/https://nexus.jefferson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Mask2-scaled.jpg)
Their business, SoSoMaxx, has donated many masks to businesses and frontline workers, and with those that they sell, a portion of the profits go to a local animal shelter.
“We will continue to make masks for as long as we need to wear them,” Ferguson says. “We happen to have a skill that meets the needs of our community. I believe that makes us obligated to do our part.”