“A business in Missouri called me and said that they were going
to get a non-compliance status if their drivers didn’t start wearing
masks. So, we are going to send them masks at no charge,” said
Wells.
Circle G Trailers’ Pam Wells is Sewing to Save Lives
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, you will find Pam Wells still
heading into work each morning. Wells is the office manager at
Circle G Trailers, and it is her job to ensure that customers are
being taken care of. However, during any downtime between
phone calls and online sales, Wells is sewing. Wells and a group
of friends, Deanna McNail Turner, Nita Cowin Francis and Dianna
Fox, are Sewing to Save Lives.
The group of ladies started sewing in early March 2020, before
the peak of the pandemic and since the inception of this project
have sewn nearly 4,000 masks. The idea came from the simple
notion that the community needed to come together. Wells, and
Circle G Trailers, is located in Ellington, Missouri, where the approximate
population is just 900 people.
“We all know each other by name here in Reynolds County and
when something like this happens, the community gets behind
the situation. So, some ladies and I started sewing,” shared Wells.
In addition to making masks for hospitals, clinics or members of
the community who are most at risk of contracting coronavirus,
the masks that Wells and her friends are making also save jobs.
Wells and her group, Sewing to Save Lives, operates solely on
donations with all materials and funds collected going back into
either materials or postage and shipping costs. To save on shipping,
Wells personally drops off orders of masks to the nearest
hospital, located an hour away. Wells also makes trips to clinics
and offers the masks to members of the community who work at
grocery stores and other establishments where workers encounter
people all day.
Ellington, Missouri (part of Reynolds County) is currently operating
under Shelter in Place rules until May 11. However, Wells and
her Sewing to Save Lives group plan to continue making masks
after that date should the COVID-19 pandemic have a resurgence
after any Shelter in Place ordinances are lifted.
“As long as there is a need, we will keep sewing. We don’t want
to stop abruptly. We plan to keep making the masks and stockpile
some just in case.”
If you would like to offer financial support to Sewing to
Save Lives, please make any donations payable to Pam
Wells and send to:
Circle G Trailers
Post Office Box 310
Ellington, Missouri 63638
10 NATDA Magazine www.natda.org