Spokane Standard

Community College of Spokane issued the following announcement on May 04.

Searching for a way to help her mother, a Pullman High School student and her boyfriend, a Running Start student from PHS attending Spokane Falls Community College in Pullman, have ended up helping more than 100 healthcare professionals whose ears were sore from wearing face masks.

Sarah Heroff’s mother, Kimberly Devich, a nurse at Elite Home Health and Hospice in Clarkston, was acquiring blisters on her ears due to the strain of wearing face masks. Sarah remembered seeing something on social media about headbands that helped, so she searched.

“When I discovered that premade headbands on the internet were hard to find and also significantly more expensive than what it would cost to make at home, I decided I would make one for her.”

Well, from there word spread among her mother’s colleagues and friends and Sarah and her boyfriend, Conley Austin, decided they could make the headbands for anyone who wanted one and they posted the information on Facebook.

“In less than a day, we had over 50 orders from Pullman, Colfax, Moscow, Lewiston and even as far as Wisconsin and Minnesota,” Conley said. “They are delivered either in person, through someone who works at a healthcare center that has multiple orders, or through the U.S. Postal Service.”

They charge $3 for a headband, which is slightly more than it costs to make, Conley said. The headbands have a button above the ear on both sides and that’s where the face mask is attached, instead of behind the ears.

They started this on April 2 and to date have made over 130. At first they had 10 to 30 orders per day but that has slowed down recently with order trickling in now.

Conley attends SFCC Pullman full-time as a Running Start student but started looking for more to fill his time when the coronavirus resulted in the cancellation of his job as a peer tutor and mentor and some other activities her was involved in, so helping with the masks has been rewarding. 

The pair of headband makers had no trouble finding the headbands, bought in 5-to-a-pack, and then buttons and thread but keeping up with the demand was the major concern they faced at first, Sarah said.

“Neither of us expected to get as much attention as we did.”

Sarah said she has been keeping busy completing schoolwork and exercising but making the headbands gave her a sense of purpose.

“I learned that even the smallest of things can go a long way in helping others.”

Sarah plans to attend SFCC Pullman next fall as a Running Start student. Her mother also attended SFCC.

If you or someone you know would like a headband to hold your sanitary mask, feel free to contact Sarah on Facebook.

Original source can be found here.