PULASKI, NY – Pulaski Academy and Central School senior Landon Jones decided to apply his creativity and compassion to assist young children in complying with the requirement to wear face coverings in school.
He decided to tackle this challenge head on, creating masks that children enjoy wearing. A senior project designed to alleviate the stress placed on children in this difficult time brings smiles to the faces of small people and the adults charged with their education and care.
Stating that masks are a simple barrier to prevent respiratory droplets from reaching others, The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention recommend that children ages two years old and older wear masks in public settings and when in contact with people who do not live in their household.
Offering face coverings that appeal to small children should be a help in keeping the masks on, and in these troubled times any help in reducing the spread of illness is of benefit everyone, especially in a public school setting where social distancing can be a challenge to enforce.
Landon’s mother, Libby Jones, teaches at Pulaski’s Lura Sharp Elementary School.
“My mom saw that some of the kids were in need of a clean mask each day,” Jones said, “She told me that they were doing a good job with all of the new requirements, and that made me think of them as heroes.”
Jones then began searching for fabrics printed with a superhero design that would be suitable for face masks.
“I was able to find four designs that worked,” Jones said.
Family members and friends were recruited to help Landon and his mother sew the masks.
”It took some practice to learn how to assemble the masks properly, but we eventually got the hang of it,” Jones said.
Just under 300 brightly colored masks were then handed out to students in grades kindergarten through fourth. Masks are still being produced and sold as a fundraiser to help defray the cost of materials.
“It’s really been a positive experience for Landon to see what it is like to give back to the community, because sometimes young people don’t have an opportunity to see how they can have an impact on others,” said Jones’s father Scott Jones, also a teacher at Pulaski Academy.
Although the size of the project seemed a little overwhelming at first, Landon and his helpers rose to the occasion.
”When Landon started this I was a little concerned about the scope of the project and the amount of time that it would take to produce a large number of masks, but when the elementary students watched a video announcing Landon’s plans, they were so excited, and that excitement provided a lot of enthusiasm to get the project started,” Scott Jones said. “When Landon delivered the first batch of masks to the second graders, he saw their very positive reaction and he came home energized and excited to continue production.”
Jones has received many letters from the elementary students thanking him for the masks and also thanking him for taking the time to think of them and helping to make the not-so-pleasant wearing of face coverings a little more bearable.
“It’s a great feeling to know that I am helping the kids and giving them something to enjoy during a strange school year,” Jones said.
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