Alaska gift shop has made over 800 COVID-19 masks

Naomi Young and her mom, LaVonne Armstrong, were expecting a strong summer of locals and tourists through their Casa de la Arte gift shop door in 2020. This is the fifth season for the little store, tucked next to the Tazlina Trading post at mile 111 Richardson, just south of the Hub where the Glenn Highway takes off for Anchorage. By now, most locals and a fair number of Alaskans from anywhere—plus their down south relatives and friends—know that Casa is a dependable stop for high quality local art and a truly unique assortment of sewn and crocheted goods and toys made by Naomi and LaVonne.

When Covid-19 closed non-essential Alaska businesses in March, Naomi wasn’t sure what she’d do to pay utilities and rent, or how she would meet the needs of customers who frequent Casa de la Arte year-round for household items and gifts. Then, in early April, a customer familiar with Naomi’s hand-crafted aprons and pillow cases asked if she could make some face masks to prevent Covid-19 transmission.

Naomi and LaVonne went to work immediately, with requests multiplying from local people eager to protect themselves and others from the virus. Word of mouth and notices on Facebook also brought in requests from Copper Valley agencies and organizations: Fish and Game, the National Park Service, Gulkana Native Village and a number of local businesses. Soon, Casa was sending masks to requesters around the state and even some outside the state.

“A lot of people wanted the masks made out of our Alaska fabrics,” says Naomi. “I have piles of fabric at the house. We moved the fabric and the whole operation from my craft room upstairs down to the living room.”

An eight foot table set up in the middle of the room allowed her to match the mask fabrics with fabrics for the long ties. With Naomi sewing and LaVonne folding and ironing, the pair put in eight to ten-hour days every day for the two months the shop was closed.

The masks are made with triple layers of cotton fabric. As she was deciding on the best mask design, Naomi read about a union store in Anchorage that wanted to provide bendable metal nose pieces to mask makers, free of charge. She contacted SMART (Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation, Local Union 23) and received her first batch of the metal strips through the USPS in just two days. Eight hundred masks (as of May 31) and counting later, she continues the relationship and orders the strips in batches of 100 when she needs them. She says she’d like to give a shout-out of gratitude to the sheet metal shop and union for their generosity in supporting mask makers all around the state.

Selling the masks for $5 apiece has kept Casa in business, and Naomi has donated a number of masks to medical caregivers and others. She can make masks with ear elastics instead of ties, but the most frequent requests are for ties, which users are reporting to be more comfortable for long term use. In fact, a request from nurses wearing the N-95 masks for long hours led LaVonne to come up with an innovative “ear saver,” a small crocheted strip with buttons on each end. The strip goes behind the head and the N-95’s elastic ear loops go over the buttons instead of around the wearers’ ears.

While the shop was closed, Naomi delivered and mailed the masks, or handed them out the door to friends and neighbors. “We did a lot of curbside pickup, too,” she said.

Casa de la Arte re-opened on Tuesday, May 12, so Naomi and LaVonne are back to their regular schedule, taking Sundays and Mondays off from the store. At the shop, they say they’ve had “a fair number of people coming in,” almost a normal feeling number of customers as the tourist season approaches. Naomi and LaVonne wear masks in the shop, and the check-out area is protected with a plastic shield. Naomi says she doesn’t mind limiting how many customers enter the small shop at once, and “people have been considerate” with each other.

At the store, there are three baskets of adult masks: Alaska fabrics, fun and comic fabrics, and football team fabrics (Go Packers!). In a section of the store with kid’s toys and clothing, Naomi keeps a basket of kid-sized masks. Requests for the masks have stayed steady so far, so Naomi and LaVonne work on masks alongside their other creations — in between customers — and often have some mask orders to catch up on when they get home, too.

The rate of Covid-19 infections in Alaska was low as of the end of May, thanks to personal and official responses, but with the recent holiday, plus the typical pattern of tourists and workers coming into Alaska for the summer, the future is uncertain. Naomi says mask-making has kept her shop doors open, and it has allowed her to contribute to a nationwide effort to slow the pandemic — a good feeling.

Like other Casa artworks and crafts, the masks are also beautiful. If we have to live through a pandemic, it’s nice to have some color and joy on our faces.

Mary Odden is the former publisher at the Copper River Record.