No matter how lovingly stitched for free, cloth face masks need metal nose clips to fit right and help keep the coronavirus away.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers—SMART for short—might be a mask-maker’s one-stop shop for the little aluminum gizmos. There’s no cost for the clips, including delivery to your doorstep.
“Our SMART Army coalition is making and distributing the nose pieces for groups and individuals throughout the U.S. that are sewing face masks to be donated to those who need them—from health officials battling the coronavirus on the front lines to at-risk family and friends,” said Jeremy Waugh, an organizer with Louisville SMART Local 110.
SMART represents hourly workers at metal fabricating facilities nationwide. Local 110 members work at companies across Kentucky.
The union started the program earlier this month. “We contacted a bunch of our contractors to see who would make the nose pieces,” Waugh explained. “They’re three inches long, a quarter-inch wide and really thin. Not everybody’s equipment is capable of shearing something like that.”
Facilities that could turn out the strips “jumped in head first,” Waugh said. “They were all over it.”
Read the rest at the KY AFL-CIO web site, including how to get some of the clips for masks you are making to donate.