Student Standout: South High senior sews masks during school pause
Student Standout: South High senior sews masks during school pause
- By Alexis Fitzpatrick afitzpatrick@herald-mail.com
- Apr 13, 2020
Payton Downie, a senior at South Hagerstown High School, holds up one of about 132 face masks she has sewn at home to send to first responders.
Editor's Note
Student Standout is a weekly feature appearing each Monday and highlighting local students who are making extraordinary contributions to their school or community. To nominate a student, call 301-791-7591 or send an email to news@herald-mail.com.
Hand sewing more than 100 face masks was not how Payton Downie expected to spend the spring of her senior year.
The 17-year-old planned to properly finish out her club volleyball season with a bid to nationals in Florida, pick out a prom dress and celebrate her long-awaited graduation with fellow South Hagerstown High School classmates.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Payton's plans got upended as school buildings closed and group gatherings were restricted — but she isn't letting that get her down.
Instead, she decided to combine her interest in fashion with a desire to help others and sudden flush of free time to make face masks for neighbors, friends and family.
It all started about a month ago when Payton saw a post on a neighborhood Facebook group that a nurse across the street needed masks, so she offered up her sewing machine and ended up making 40.
Now she has crafted around 130.
"After that kind of took off, and watching videos on how to do it and everything, I started getting orders from people to make masks," Payton said.
Always interested in clothes and even planning to major in fashion merchandising in college, Payton began sewing in eighth grade. She said making the masks has been the largest project she has undertaken.
"The first mask I made was very tedious. There's a lot of little steps, like ironing and pleating, that I didn't know went into it," she said. "I've been trying to do them daily. I have been taking breaks here and there, but there's been some days where it's like a 12-hour day for me in the basement and other days, I'm down there maybe five to six hours."
Once orders began to pick up, Payton enlisted the help of her parents Lisa and Jeremy Downie, and siblings Ethan, 15; Landon, 12; Braxton, 6, to do an "assembly line" to craft the masks in bulk.
The adult- and child-sized masks have made their way to family and friends out of state, along with being donated to health care workers and Project Linus in Frederick, Md.
Along with helping people during a stressful time, Payton said making the masks has been a good distraction to avoid thinking about what she would be doing at school. The experience has also given her a lot of respect for people who work in manufacturing.
"This has kind of been a blessing. I think this has kind of kept her mood elevated. She's very self-motivated and has an entrepreneur personality," Lisa Downie said.
Downie said while it has been a disappointment for Payton's senior year to finish this way she is proud her daughter is learning real-life skills while helping others..
Payton transferred from Grace Academy to South High this year, in large part to go to a prom and graduation that increasingly seem like they may not happen.
She was able to submit her masks as her fourth-quarter studio art project, but even that strange as she had to submit photos online as opposed to showing them off in person
"It's really weird not going to school and not like seeing everyone or not being able to have certain experiences that other kids may have," Payton said. "But it's a really good feeling to see my neighbors or family friends thank me for the masks and send pictures...and know I helped them feel safer during these times."
Payton plans to continue making masks until the pandemic simmers down.
- By Alexis Fitzpatrick afitzpatrick@herald-mail.com
- Apr 13, 2020
Alexis Fitzpatrick covers the City of Hagerstown. She can be reached by email at afitzpatrick@herald-mail.com.
