NEDERLAND, Texas — A 12-year-old girl in Nederland is making a big difference with her sewing skills.
Betsy Mcintyre is a sixth grader at C.O. Wilson Middle School.
She's using her time out of the classroom to sew masks for health care workers and others for free. Some are even going to people in Austin, Dallas, New York and Florida.
"It keeps me busy during all this, just as much as i can do to help," Mcintyre said.
Mcintyre said she started making the masks when she saw that a local doctors office didn't have many to go around.
"We saw a video on YouTube and also we just wanted to help out people," Mcintyre said.
Since then, she's sewn close to 200 masks. McIntyre says she spends about 6 hours a day making the masks. She's even had to get creative by using an ace bandage for the ear pieces, because elastic has been hard to find. Mcintyre uses a variety of fabrics.
"We wanted to get kinds for all people cause not everyone likes the same thing, Mcintyre said, "so they have an option to choose which one they want."
Mcintyre started sewing about two years ago. She saw her mom doing it, and thought it looked cool. She also sews things like pillows and scrunchies.
Mcintyre admits, she still enjoys things most kids her age like, like Tik Tok dances and watching TV. However, she says others her age should give mask making a try.
“I feel proud of myself,” Mcintyre said. “You never know. You might be perfect at it, and it might be your favorite thing ever to do. And you might fall in love with it.”
Betsy is still taking orders via her mom’s Facebook page. You can also send donations for materials if you want to help out to her moms PayPal account, brittneymcintyre@gmail.com.
Mcintyre's mom, Brittney Mcintyre, is incredibly proud of her. She says on top of the mask making, her daughter also does bake sales to raise money for gift cards for the homeless, and also once delivered Easter baskets to children stuck in the hospital and at the women and children's shelter. She even brought an ice cream sundae set up to the shelter, and made them for the kids.
"It's just something near and dear to us, and we just want to help as best we can," she said, "because if we have the means, why wouldn't we help, because if we needed something we sure hope other people would come together for us in our time of need."
