Masks for Rapid City seeking volunteers to make 14,000 masks for RCAS

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Rapid City Area Schools have reached out to the Masks for Rapid City project team to request 14,000 masks for students who will be returning to schools the week of September 8.

Masks for Rapid City is looking for volunteers to assist in accomplishing this task to help protect students as they return to school. The project room has been moved to room 242 in Wambli Hall, and they are looking for volunteers for the following:

• Cutting knit ties for masks (in need of 5400 knit strips cut to 1” width)
• Assembly of 300 Elementary Student Mask making kits (each kit will produce 36 kid sized masks)
• Sewers in the community to pick up these kits for students, and help sorting the masks when they are dropped off

Western Dakota Tech was asked to lead the Rapid City mask-making and distribution effort and formed Masks for Rapid City in April 2020. WDT and West River Area Health Education Center employees set a goal of collecting and distributing 60,000 masks for Rapid City.

They have collected and distributed 17,000 masks to date, and they are currently working on collecting 1,500 orange masks for the Pennington County Jail. The next big project will be the collection for RCAS.

Masks for Rapid City has received over $90,000 in grants from local foundations, including Vucurevich Foundation, United Way of the Black Hills, Monument Health Foundation, South Dakota Community Foundation, and the Black Hills Area Community Foundation to purchase Batik fabric, thread, knit fabric for mask ties, and other items necessary to create kits to make the needed face masks.

Betty’s Quiltery, The Sewing Center, and The Quilt Connection have provided Batik cloth and thread at a discount for this purpose. Laundry World and Heritage Cleaners are washing the new material prior to the masks being made, and rewashing them prior to distribution, for free.

The Monument Health Print Shop and RCAS Print Shop have donated the paper and printing cost for the mask-making instruction and pattern packets that are included in each mask-making kits

They are coordinating the purchasing, prewashing of the Batik fabric; mask making kit assembly; and completed masks drop-off and distribution at Western Dakota Tech. Finished masks can be dropped off at WDT on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m. to noon.

Please call the Masks for Rapid City hotline at (605) 718-3800 and leave a message if you or your group can volunteer for any of the projects.