Even though we’re living through a global pandemic that doesn’t mean that kindness has stopped. In fact, we’ve seen a lot of people stepping up to help others in need who’ve been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in any way that they can – including one 9-year-old girl. With the coronavirus seeing a shortage of face masks, Michaela Munyan decided that she was going to help out the crisis by donating handmade cloth masks.
The young girl from Oakland Township, Michigan, has been hard at work during the past few months sewing more than 570 face masks! Her masks have been donated to many nurses, restaurant employees, and other frontline workers – including the employees over at her favorite pizza joint.
Posted by The Friendly Chupacabra on Wednesday, July 8, 2020
She has also made donations of face masks to local friends and family. The enterprising 9-year-old has been taking requests through her Facebook page, The Friendly Chupacabra.
Speaking to Parents, she shared that she feels good knowing that she’s able to help out. She added, “I hope it encourages others to do the same. We all have to help each other through this.”
Michaela first began sewing after she got taught through her school’s sewing club. Since then, she’d been making her own scrunchies and bags. And she even made some clothing for her cat, Minerva. It was actually Minerva’s nickname that inspired her to create her Facebook page.
Posted by The Friendly Chupacabra on Thursday, June 25, 2020
Once her school shut down, Michaela kept busy at home. When she heard about the shortage of face masks that were going around, she decided to do something about it. She found a pattern online and started experimenting with making her own face masks. Once she got it right, she made some for her entire family. After that, she began reaching out to the community. Her face masks have even been worn by Michigan residents living in faraway places such as Thailand or Sweden!
Kristen and Matt Munyan, her parents, could not be more proud of their daughter. They have been her biggest support along this endeavor. Her father Matt said, “As a parent, you try to raise good people, kind people. We’re lucky to be her parents.”
Michaela’s page has certainly gained a lot of traction as of late, and the 9-year-old is finding herself with more requests than she can handle – a lot of the requests have even cut into her homework time! But it doesn’t look like she’ll be stopping any time soon.
Hopefully we can all remember the importance of wearing a mask when we go out in public.