Hello! My name is Allison Moon and I am the Founding President of High Schoolers for Front Liners. After recognizing the pressing need for Personal Protective Gear and realizing that several front-line workers were sewing their very own masks, I began HSFL to provide a source of unfiltered support for those most impacted by the pandemic.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020 March, I was inspired by an article I read online explaining that many nurses and doctors were having to sew their own masks to go to work. Even though we are just students, I believe we should always remain proactive. We should not sit around and do nothing. With this in mind, I reached out to my personal friends to build a group of students who were willing to donate their time to sewing masks.
HSFL’s first contact was the Doctor’s Community Hospital but soon branched out to several other hospitals, including the Veterans Affairs Center in Baltimore and the Howard University Hospital in DC. Over the summer, our team donated on a biweekly basis to each facility donating anywhere from 150 to 800 masks each time.
As demand intensity for masks continued to rise, HSFL extended its aid to detention centers after realizing that almost no outside support was provided to the inmate population even though they had higher risks of infection. According to the CDC, I learned that detention centers often have higher rates of infection as inmates have limited medical supplies, live in crowded dormitories, and shared bathrooms. Our team soon began donating to the Montgomery County Detention Center along with the Anne Arundel Detention Center to protect inmates and their faculties as well.
During the summer, I organized a Kickstarter campaign, raising over $5,000. This internet generosity was put to valuable use to buy materials like fabric, elastic, and sewing machines. I am so grateful to all the volunteers who decided to dedicate their time to our organization. It is with their support that we have been able to come this far.
I hope that more volunteers will become aware of our organization and pitch in their support to provide for the community. We are at a time of desperate need — which is made clear by the rampant need for medical supplies. Hopefully, we can become a source of hope for our community.
Written by Allison Moon
May 1st, 2020