Coronavirus In Minnesota: Woman Crafts More Than 800 Face Masks For Front-Line Workers

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minnesota woman has dedicated these last few weeks to making hundreds of face masks for organizations in need amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the last month, Nancy Nerland has been sewing face masks from dawn to dusk. She estimates she's made more than 800 masks, donating all of them to front-line efforts.

"We've taken them to the VA hospital, breast cancer patients, nursing homes, clinics, pharmacies, construction companies, and [prisons]," she said.

Nerland says her efforts were motivated out of a desire to help.

"You feel so helpless with all these people getting sick," she said. "So, it was just like: Is there something we can do?"

Nerland says she is not taking any donations. However, she does encourage people to donate to her family's foundation, which builds schools in Africa.

Nerland says she found a face mask sewing template on Pinterest.