Students Sewing for SoCal
After COVID-19 shut down local schools, Laguna Beach High School students Michael Pinto, Myha Pinto, and Jackson Golden wanted to do something with their newfound time to help give back to their community. The trio jumped on the mask bandwagon early and started making and donating masks to help people feel safer when going out to buy groceries and participate in other essential activities.
The first masks were hand-sewn, but thanks to the donations of fabrics and elastic bands, an extra sewing machine courtesy of Royal Hawaiian, and monetary donations (their GoFundMe account reached over $700 of their $1000 goal in the first week), they have been able to produce around 20-30 re-usable masks per day, donating them to places like the Laguna Beach Food Pantry, the LB Police Department, and Ralphs, amongst others.
They’ve named themselves “Sewing for SoCal” and are picking up more and more steam each day, even catching the attention of the LA Times, who featured them in a story last week. Their aim is to continue growing the club and making as many masks as they can until the pandemic ends. Michael states, “We want to try to get more students involved, which has been hard because of social distancing,” however, for those interested in helping, the club plans on sending supplies to their houses so fellow students can work from home (supplies consist of fun patterns like Star Wars, stripes, and florals).
The students, who are all athletes, have created beauty from chaos, and have used their leadership to inspire others — hopefully with a smile at the other end of the mask.
“From this club we have learned a lot,” shares Michael. “Yes, we have learned to sew, but more importantly, we have learned what it feels like to give back to our community at a time when everyone relies on each other — and we feel really proud and good about it.”
Truly, we are reaping what they sew.
