North Charlotte Today

After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked individuals to wear personal protective face masks out in public, masks have been harder to find and higher in demand, but individuals have begun making their own face masks to make up for the lack in stores. 

In North Carolina, several individuals have taken the demand for masks into their own hands and are now sewing masks for senior citizens and essential workers. 

Harry Patel, pharmacist at his family-owned company Austin Drugs in Charlotte, said he began making masks with his family, but eventually they began donating them to senior citizens in the area, according to WCNC, and one 82-year-old called Patel to personally thank him for the mask. 

"She called me and said, 'I was using a folded napkin as a mask until you sent me one. She sent me a picture of her wearing it, and she said, 'Believe it or not, I am smiling from ear to ear," Patel told WCNC. "I shared it with my team of volunteers and there were a couple of them crying because this is [the] reason we are doing this."

Patel's group has made around 800 masks and plans to continuing making more, according to WCNC. He told WCNC his group is donating them to seniors because they are at risk from the virus and are often underserved when it comes to mask donations. 

Patel and his team also sew "flashier" masks, he told WCNC. They sell these masks to make money to purchase supplies for the ones they donate to senior citizens, according to WCNC. 

But Patel isn't the only one making masks in North Carolina. 

In Roanoke Rapids, Carolyn Gore and her sister-in-law have started making masks to give to essential workers, according to WBTV. 

Gore told WBTV she noticed grocery store cashiers were at risk of catching COVID-19. Cashiers didn't have access to a mask and many customers wouldn't follow social distancing and step too close to the cashiers, she said. 

“I have a mask on and I was looking at all the essential employees and they didn’t have a mask,” Gore told WBTV. ”I said if I can make them to help them because I know it’s a lot of people that can’t find the masks out there or they can’t find the material to make them or they don’t know how."

After Gore made 25 face masks and gave them to essential workers for free, her sister-in-law Carolyn Parker, in Monroe, told WBTV she bought fabric and asked Gore to make more masks. Parker said she wanted to hand them out to essential workers in her community. 

“Here is the cashier who is assisting helping me and they don’t even have a mask on and we’re less than six feet apart. You know so I felt bad," Parker told WBTV. ”It’s a great opportunity just to help out. Just to help out. And if she can do it I can do it. You know whatever you can do to help anybody that cannot help themselves at this point just do it. Help them out.”

Gore has made 150 masks and plans to continue making more for essential workers. 

”Just a small way to help make sure somebody stays safe out there cause they have to work and somebody gotta think about them,” Gore told WBTV.