Alabaster woman spends long hours making masks to donate across the US

ALABASTER, Ala. (WIAT) — An Alabaster woman has been spending her nights making masks for those on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.

Kimberly Simmons was watching the news one day when a story aired about nurses working in hospitals in New York. The hospitals did not have enough appropriate personal protection equipment for everyone working.

“There were nurses up in New York that were saying they didn’t have proper PPE,” Simmons said. “They needed more masks. so I was sitting at home wanting to help in some type of way. I just felt her pain.”

Simmons has an autoimmune disease that she says puts her in danger when she gets anxious. She said that making the masks allows her to calm down, focus on something else and help those who need it.

Simmons is married to Akeam Simmons, pastor at Liberty Baptist Church. They both hold this cause and their religion close to heart.

“Once we wash the masks, sanitize them, wash them again and press them, we lay the masks across our old bible,” she said. “He prays, I pray and [the masks] are saturated right there over Psalms 91.”

Each mask has that Scripture woven into them. When the Simmonses send these masks, including areas across the U.S., they’re sent in individual boxes with a letter inside telling the recipient that they are loved. The letter also has the aforementioned Psalms 91 printed on it.