Eastman Living Online Magazine

BY JANE DEANE CLARK | PHOTOS BY FRED ORKIN

How do you start a small manufacturing company when you are in the midst of a pandemic? You have no business experience, supply chain, distribution, marketing, or customer service. You don’t even have a location to work from. AND you are all volunteers? The answer, of course, is that you work as a team and have a lot of luck among you.  The Susie Stitchers solved all those problems, producing 6,000 fabric masks between March and September of 2020.

The Susie Stitchers got their start when Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) sent an email to all its volunteers on March 17, asking for help in making fabric masks for all staff and visitors to the hospital. They needed masks and they needed them in a hurry. But, closer to home, our community in Eastman also needed the protection of fabric masks.

Assembling our workforce

An initial email sent to a group of known quilters, knitters, and friends produced an encouraging number of offers to help. Some offers were for sewing, others for cutting, and others offered to dig into their “stash” of fabric to look for appropriate material. We even had one respondent who had a sewing machine that she didn’t know how to use, but she was willing to lend to someone who did.

Most of the “Susies” were from Grantham, but there were some in Lebanon, NH as well as Maine and Florida, who would mail their completed masks to Grantham. We now had the workforce assembled. If we had only gone to business school, we could have solved the rest of the problems just as quickly.

Doing market research

This was probably the easiest since we simply had to approach ECA Board Chair Bill Matson and then-General

Manager Ken Ryder. Both gave their immediate support by agreeing that this was a worthwhile undertaking to help our Eastman neighbors.

But we didn’t want to limit our help to Eastman, so we contacted Grantham Town Administrator Melissa White to ask if she would be interested in having us make masks for residents of Grantham as well. She encouraged us to do so and offered to help. Most importantly, Melissa suggested Linda Martin as our town liaison, and Linda recruited more “stitchers” in Grantham.

Product design

We knew what we were going to make: fabric masks. The more difficult part was finding a pattern that was easy to follow, took very little material and elastic, and could be produced quickly with little waste. One of the “Susies,” Jane Verdrager, had been making masks for her family and had a pattern. By comparing it with the one that DHMC recommended, we found they were very similar and that we could adjust to the DHMC standard quite easily. We also discovered that DHMC would not accept masks that were not made to their specifications. Realizing that any masks we made beyond what was needed in Eastman and Grantham could not be wasted, we adopted the DHMC requirements as our own. Only new, 100 percent cotton material would be accepted. The sizes for small, medium, and large were defined as was the length of the elastic to be placed on the short side of each rectangle of fabric. Pre-washing, ironing, and marking each mask with the size were also required.

As time progressed, we found out that we needed a modification for people who wear hearing aids. These people discovered that when they took off their masks, their hearing aids were dislodged or came off with the mask. This was resolved when one of the Susies put long fabric ties on the four corners of the rectangle instead of elastic. She preferred making them this way and had found them to be successful. However, DHMC would not accept this version of the masks because the ties got tangled in their washers and dryers and added too much time to the laundering process, but we continued to make these masks available to residents.

Marketing and publicity

How were we going to let people know that masks were available? ECA offered to publicize the availability of masks through Eastman Highlights and on the electronic sign boards at the entrances. The Town of Grantham put a notice on the official board in the Post Office and in the weekly Grantham News. Several places around Grantham put up posters. Word of mouth also helped immensely.

Supply chain

Now that we had standardized the product we were making, we needed to secure a supply chain for the components of the masks: fabric, elastic, and thread. Thread was easy because everyone who has a sewing machine has thread, but even that was challenging in a time when restocking your thread was a major undertaking. Thread began to be passed between stitchers.

Fabric was the next challenge and was initially answered by the Susies themselves. Many of them had stashed fabric for quilts and other projects for years, so they pulled out the fabrics they had never used—or no longer wanted as their tastes had changed over time—and donated their fabric. As time went on, we had to obtain more fabric (it takes lots of fabric to produce 6,000 masks). Jane Verdrager and Ruth Ann Eastman both knew

a quilt shop, Quilted Threads in Henniker, NH, that would sell us fabric and even give us a discount if we went to Henniker to pick it up. Of course, the person who went would be masked, gloved, and the only person in the store. We also were able to purchase fabric from Hen House Fabric, a quilt store in White River Junction, VT, that was closing its doors. There, too, we purchased discounted, top-grade, cotton fabric.

Elastic became a real issue as fewer and fewer places had any in stock. Several of the Susies put in online orders that promised delivery in X-number of weeks or months. Everyone tried to purchase any elastic they could find. We never had to stop production, but several times it was close. We were most successful in finding a large quantity of lingerie elastic which, happily, some people prefer because it is softer and easier to wear for longer periods of time.

Grantham SAU 75 Superintendent Sydney Leggett held a COVID-19 limerick contest at the school to keep spirits up.
By Christine Conroy

I’ve been sewing and sewing and sewing
To keep coronavirus from growing,
But it’s not much to ask
So we all have a mask.
Just make sure the elastic is flowing!

How do you go from a bolt of cloth to a finished mask? We had to figure out a process that would keep all of the Susies safe, minimize duplication of effort, and use the specific skills and equipment that some Susies possessed. We broke the process into smaller pieces.

First, we recognized that we had some Susies who did not have sewing machines but who wanted to help. They became the washing and ironing team. They would receive seven to 10 yards of cloth to pre-shrink by washing in hot water and drying in a hot dryer. The team members would then iron each piece so it was ready for the next team.

The second specialized team was made up of the cutters and kit assemblers. These Susies were all quilters with specialized equipment: a rotary cutting blade, a cutting board with measurements on it, and acrylic rulers of various sizes. In part, this was to meet the DHMC’s exacting standards for size, but it also ensured that we could cut the fabric as quickly as possible to get the kits into the hands of the stitchers. The cutters and assemblers would get the pre-washed and ironed fabric, cut the rectangles, and assemble kits in plastic bags containing 10

pairs of two different colored fabric rectangles and elastic. As we progressed, we figured out that no matter which of the three sizes was being made, 4.5 yards of elastic would suffice. This sped up the process as well.

Conveyor belts

Well, not exactly conveyor belts since we were in 44 different places, but we had to resolve the problem of moving the product through the manufacturing process. This became easier than we could have dared to hope when Ruth Ann Eastman stepped forward and offered her “magic workbench.” Ruth Ann’s house has a third garage bay that is separated from the rest of the garage by a door. It has an outside door and a spotless workbench that her husband had used. Ruth Ann’s house is centrally located in Eastman, not far from the entrance. She offered the use of her workbench on the condition that each of us wear a mask, come into her driveway one at a time, and use the gloves and hand sanitizer provided. This became the central distribution point where Susies picked up and returned fabric, kits, and finished masks.

All of this worked extremely well until the activity level became too great for Ruth Ann’s garage. At that point, ECA stepped up and offered us the use of the lobby at the South Cove Activity Center (SCAC). A table and several baskets were installed and the same safety rules were put in place at SCAC. After two sets of completed masks disappeared from SCAC, we moved to individual porches as the points of contact.

“Sales”

We wanted to provide masks free of charge but needed to be self-perpetuating, not depending on the Susies to purchase fabric and elastic. What to do? The answer was suggested by Bill and Donna Matson. Each completed mask was placed in a plastic bag with a note reminding the recipient to wash the mask before using and offering them the opportunity to donate funds to keep the Susies in business. ECA offered to receive the donations, keep track of the donors, and write checks for reimbursement when needed.

Distribution

Donna Matson volunteered to run the distribution process. She received the emails sent to masks@eastmannh.org, picked up the completed masks, and packaged them with instructions for individual recipients. These were made available for pick up on her front porch or at SCAC. When we expanded to supplying Grantham, Linda Martin filled this role for residents outside of Eastman and her distribution point was the Town Hall.

Additionally, Donna and Linda undertook the task of delivering larger packages of masks to other recipients. To date, beyond the residents of Eastman and Grantham, nearly 3,000 masks were delivered to Upper Valley organizations. (See accompanying chart)

Organization                                                                     Masks

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center                         1025

LISTEN                                                                                    610

Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD)                     450

Turning Points Network                                                    205

Harris Hill Nursing Home                                                  115

All Town of Grantham employees                                      73

ECA employees                                                                        60

Rum Brook Market                                                                 55

Dunbar Free Library (employees and patrons)               55

Special Needs Support Center                                              55

Hanover Terrace Rehab                                                        50

ECA Recreation guests                                                          50

Alice Peck Day Hospital                                                        44

Sugar River Veterinary Clinic                                              12

Total                                                                                     2,859

  

Customer Service

Although the masks were free and many of the Susies donated materials as well as time, we had some incredibly

generous financial donors. Each donor, no matter what the amount, received a thank you note. When it became obvious that we had excess funds, the Susie Stitchers made $1,000 donations to the Grantham Crisis Fund, LISTEN Community Services, Newport Food Pantry, and Turning Points Network. Each donor also received a note explaining these donations.

Expansion

If all that wasn’t enough, the Susies had a new goal. We stockpiled masks of all sizes, retaining enough to provide

two masks for every student, faculty and staff member of the Grantham Village School. In addition, we also made two masks for every Grantham student attending the Lebanon middle and high schools. This gift of 1,100 new masks was given to SAU 75 on Aug. 31, just in time for school to begin. In doing so, we took another huge step forward in protecting the entire community.

At the time of this writing (August), we had more than 300 masks at the ready if the need arises once again. Our machines and our Susies have taken a must-needed rest and celebrated our success!

Why Susie Stitchers?

While it must be difficult for fledgling organizations to name their new enterprises, for us it was easy. Within the first week of getting started, several of us had a conversation about how low-tech our contribution to keeping our community safe really was. We were doing the equivalent of rolling bandages for the Civil War or WW I. And if you pushed hard on the reference, we were like Rosie the Riveter in WW II. That immediately turned into Susie the Sewer, but because “sewer” can be pronounced in two ways, we decided that Susie the Stitcher was far more satisfactory for the wonderful women who have worked tirelessly since March to make fabric masks for everyone who requested one.

Jane Deane Clark and her husband moved to Eastman in 2008 while Janie continued her 30-year career in health care quality improvement until her retirement in 2012. Janie is a long-time member of the Sustainable Eastman Committee, has served as Chair and a Council Representative for East Cove Special Place, is a member of the Forest Working Group, and a past-President and current member of the Grantham Garden Club Steering Committee.

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