Tulsa Ballet Helps Create Face Masks Amid State's Medical Supply Shortage

The Tulsa Ballet is pitching in to make sure hospitals don’t run out of masks.

Seamstresses, who usually create and size costumes from some of your favorite ballets like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake, are creating 300 masks a week.

"It is definitely one of those things that when I have told friends that yeah, I am making hospital masks now, there is a pause and then a question of, don't you make costumes?" said Costume Director Shawn Sturdevant.

The group is spending their shifts making masks - hundreds of them a week.

"We have gone through kind of a production line process," said Costume Assistant Maddie Rice.

"These are not for patients with COVID-19, these are not for doctors and nurses with COVID-19, but they are to kind of alleviate some of the pressure that the hospitals are facing right now due to mass shortage," said Wardrobe Supervisor Tori Highfill.

The masks are washable and reusable and constructed exactly the way medical professionals in the area have asked the crew to make them.  Tulsa Ballet says “the masks will be worn by administrative staff and medical staff not in contact with COVID-19 patients, and patients.”

"The fabric all comes from our shop here or some donations from outside sources," said Sturdevant.

Once they are finished, the masks are donated directly to hospitals in need.

"It has been a real joy and a privilege to get to work on something like this and give back to the community. I have been excited about this since yesterday morning when I found out," said Rice. "It really relieved a lot of stress that I was feeling of not being able to do anything but hole up at home."

The first two hospitals start picking up their masks this week. Tulsa Ballet says it is a case by case basis after that.