Her students at Jefferson College know Janet Akers-Montgomery as the director of the radiologic technology program.
Since the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold, though, people in the health fields around the country know her as a dedicated seamstress who’s helping to keep them safe.
Over the last couple of weeks, when she’s not teaching classes via “distance learning,” Akers-Montgomery is ensconced in her craft room in the basement of her home in rural Farmington, hunched over a Brother sewing machine cranking out cloth masks on demand.
And Akers-Montgomery said there is plenty of demand – or at least polite request. By April 16, she had fashioned 675 masks.
“I’m still getting orders,” she said. “I’ve shipped them all over the country.”
Akers-Montgomery, who described herself as just a “hobbyist” seamstress, works evenings (“and as long as 12 hours a day during the weekends,” she said) trying to help health care workers maintain their own health while staying on the job.
Before she took the job at Jefferson College, Akers-Montgomery said she worked for 17 years as a radiologist, at what’s now called Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City.
“I’m not on the front lines anymore, but some of my former students are, and some of them now are student techs,” she said. “I wanted to do something for them, and help everyone out there in some way. Even though I’m not on the front lines anymore, my heart is still there.”
Akers-Montgomery, 44, said she started making masks after her sister-in-law, who works at a health care facility, posted on Facebook that they really needed cloth masks.
“I responded, ‘Let me sew some for you,’ and ended up making 15 or so, and then she said she’d like one for all their girls in her office, so I made 36 that night. She posted that I did that on Facebook, and it went from there, with requests from others.
“Because I know a lot of people in the health care field, they saw what was posted and asked if I could help them out, too,” Akers-Montgomery said.
She said she’s sent masks to a homeless youth shelter in Los Angeles, to a hospital near Chicago and to radiology offices in New Mexico, Michigan and Colorado.
Others have been sent to addresses in Jefferson and St. Francois counties.
She said she also made some masks for workers at the Main and Mill Brewing Co. in Festus.
“I’m friends with the mom of one of the employees, and she asked if I could make some for them,” Akers-Montgomery said. “I made them 30.”
She said the cloth masks are made of 100 percent cotton material.
“That’s because the cloth is a tightly woven material, and it’s best at keeping out particles,” she said.
Each mask has two layers, plus a pocket for a filter if the user wishes to insert one, she said.
The design, she said, is a modified Olsen-style mask.
“People in the health care field know what those are,” she said. “I modified it a little so that I could sew it easier. It’s washable, and the straps are not elastic. They’re made so that you can wear one on an 8- to 12-hour shift and the straps won’t hurt your ears. It’s also made so that it will fit over an N95 mask.
“I’ve been told that in a lot of places, they’re having to reuse those N95 masks, so putting on a cloth mask over it will save the N95 from being contaminated,” Akers-Montgomery said.
She said it takes her about 15 minutes to complete a mask. Fortunately, she has help.
“My wife (Vickie Montgomery) and mother-in-law (Mabel Wofford), who lives with us, have been cutting the cloth out for me so that all I do is sew,” she said.
She said her mother-in-law, who’s 88, also has donated some material.
“She used to work at the Biltwell Pants Factory (in Farmington) and had an old bolt of cotton that’s come in handy,” Akers-Montgomery said. “She can’t sew anymore –she has bad eyes – but I told her that I’d get her a new pair of scissors to help cut the cloth. She loves doing it, and she loves having a purpose.”
She also occasionally has other additional assistance.
“I have a beagle, Hobo, who sometimes isn’t happy about all the time I’ve been spending at the sewing machine,” she said. “He thinks he’s a lap dog, so he comes downstairs and sits on my lap while I’m trying to sew.”
Those who need masks can contact her through her Facebook page, she said. She’s also part of a Facebook group of people who are sewing masks, the St. Francois/Jefferson County Mask Drive.
Akers-Montgomery said she accepts donations for the masks.
“I had someone send me in $5,” she said. “They didn’t want a mask, and they said they were out of work, but they just appreciated what I was doing. I’ve had a donation of a couple of hundred dollars. But I don’t want money from anyone in the health field. This is my effort to try to help them. When I’m asked by a health care worker, I tell them I don’t want to be paid. Just pay it forward.”
