Little project, big impact
Lifelong Baltimorean and retired teacher Claire Ritterhoff is no stranger to putting her sewing skills to use for others.
As a member of Baltimore’s Team for Days for Girls, she’s spent time making reusable menstrual products for years. But when COVID-19 struck, Claire found a new use for her needle and thread. The group decided to shift to making cloth face coverings for donation, including to Health Care for the Homeless.
Like most of us, her normal activities have been moved to virtual platforms or cancelled. But making masks has helped her stay connected to her sewing community and even interact with new communities like Health Care for the Homeless.
“I felt isolated and powerless during the early weeks,” Claire says. “I live alone and I can’t volunteer in person, but I can use my sewing skills to make masks to keep friends, relatives and even people I'll never meet safe. I enjoy doing it. It’s a nice little project.”
She’s already made a huge impact. In addition to making masks, she’s also mobilizing her own community. “I’ve connected others looking to donate masks to Health Care for the Homeless and I’ve collected some other masks from my neighbors,” she says. “Sometimes it’s only six, but it adds up.”
It certainly does. Since April, Claire has created, collected and donated over 300 masks. Thanks to Claire and many others, we distributed over 10,000 cloth masks in 2020, meaning that thousands of people who have come through our doors received a mask that will keep them safe and healthy.
Claire is longing to get back to meeting with her friends at Days for Girls. But in the meantime, she plans to keep making masks using her favorite patterns: flamingos, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and crabs. As she puts it, “Everyone should have access to what they need to stay safe. This is something we can do to help. It’s important work.”
Feeling inspired? You can help, too! Email donations@hchmd.org to donate masks.
Here are some tips from a pro (Meghan Curran, who donated 65 masks) to help you get started:
More Recent News
After a year of serving as Practice Manager of West Baltimore, Alkema Jackson is moving into the new role of Director of Practice Operations, Community Sites! She joined Health Care for the Homeless in 2022 as the Client Access Project Coordinator, collaborating across departments to help more people connect to agency services, and in 2023, she received a Core Value Award for Hope. Read on to learn more about Alkema’s approach to this new position…
Meet Christana Greene, our new Director of Compliance! With more than five years in the compliance field—most recently as Senior Quality and Patient Safety Specialist at GBMC Healthcare—Chrissy brings frontline insight to the role. She began her career as a medical assistant, gaining firsthand experience in what it takes to keep care safe and operations running smoothly. In her new role, Chrissy is focused on building a compliance culture grounded in safety, integrity and accountability. Read on to learn more about Chrissy...
Baltimore gets dangerously cold, and too many of our neighbors are out there.Here are three simple things you can do to make a difference in someone’s life this winter.
Meet Lolita Wright, a mother and caregiver. Lolita is never leaving Baltimore. She shares her parents' love of music and determination.