A Rimbey business is donating their time and energy during quarantine to help frontline workers in central Alberta.
Purple Katz Quilting was forced to shut their doors the first week of March due to COVID-19. Tracy Loyek, owner of Purple Katz Quilting, decided she needed to stay busy and realized she would be able to help her daughter who is a nurse in Red Deer by making washable nurses bags.
”What it does is that they put their clothes in at the end of every shift, they can put it in the bag, put it in the washer and then there is less contact for their home environment,” Loyek said.
Since then, Loyek has been donating fabric to sewers in the community who are willing to donate their time and effort to help frontline workers in central Alberta. Loyek said their work is part of provincial effort.
On Facebook, there is a group called Scrub Nurses Bags for Alberta. The Quilt Shop in Claresholm designed a pattern and they have it available for free on their website. Loyek said their work has taken off and she intends to try to donate fabric to anyone in the community looking to sew bags, so long as they are needed by local health authorities.
“It has taken off from there because quilters and sewers are the most generous people in the world. We have donated fabric when there was the fires up north, when there was flooding down south and when the Humboldt Broncos crash happened,” she said.
“We like to help and we put it out there that if anyone wants to sew, I am willing to provide the fabric if they are willing to put in the time. It is a good partnership,” she said.
Loyek said they are coordinating their efforts with the Rimbey Hospital and there is also a group of sewers in Sylvan Lake who are working with the Bethany Care Centre to sew masks.
“I would like mine go to central zone, because that is my community. I am willing to give out as much fabric as people ask for. I just want to make sure there is a place for them to go,” she said.
Loyek added there are many frontline workers other than nurses who are in need of these products.
“I think it is a wonderful thing. The quilters and sewers are always looking for ways to help,” she said.
You can get in touch with Loyek by email at purplekatzquilting@gmail.com. She asks you first go to the Facebook page to see where the nurse bags are needed.
Purple Katz Quilting is currently also operating a curb-side pick-up during the quarantine fore the for-sale products.
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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