{"id":28681,"date":"2020-04-29T18:07:32","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T23:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28681"},"modified":"2020-04-29T18:07:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T23:07:32","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-theatre-professor-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-operation-come-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2020\/04\/29\/austin-peay-state-university-theatre-professor-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-operation-come-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University theatre professor sewing masks for health care workers, Operation Come Together"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-324279\" title=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University - APSU\" width=\"250\" height=\"64\"\/><strong>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> &#8211; When the coronavirus pandemic forced Austin Peay State University (APSU) Professor Leni Dyer to stay home in mid-March, she wanted to find a way to help during the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy first instinct was how can I help, what can I do other than just sitting at home waiting for this to end?\u201d Dyer said. \u201cWhat can I do to help people?\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_488800\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-2.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-488800\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-488800\" title=\"Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer models one of the masks she made herself, inspired by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (APSU)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-2-480x346.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer models one of the masks she made herself, inspired by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (APSU)\" width=\"480\" height=\"346\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-488800\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer models one of the masks she made herself, inspired by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Dyer, who teaches costume design for the APSU Department of Theatre and Dance, found a way to help as she worked to move her sewing and advanced makeup classes online in response to the crisis.<\/p>\n<p>She saw a social media call for volunteer sewers from Operation Come Together \u2013 a locally run effort working to produce fabric masks and face shields for health care workers in the region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing a costume designer one of my skill sets that I\u2019ve learned over the years is how to sew,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cSewing as part of a way to help people is really very gratifying to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Helping from home<\/h3>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"We Can&#039;t Make It Without The Arts: Episode 11 - Sewing Masks with Professor Leni Dyer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2BqTVDH8RTo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Dyer had just returned from a cruise and was in self-quarantine at her house when she contacted Operation Come Together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t leave the house,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see anybody. So, they actually brought people to the house. They\u2019d leave a bag (with materials) on the front step, and I\u2019d go get the bag and make the masks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Operation Come Together then retrieved the finished masks from Dyer\u2019s front step.<\/p>\n<p>Dyer has made well over 100 masks in several exchanges with the operation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve gotten the one down to a science, and it takes me eight minutes to make a mask,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s with the fabric already cut out and everything prepared.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dyer said her masks have gone to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and to Tennova Healthcare, among other local places.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[470center]<\/p>\n<h3>Operation Come Together needs help<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_488801\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-1.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-488801\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-488801\" title=\"Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for hospital workers. (APSU)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-1-480x320.jpg\" alt=\"Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for hospital workers. (APSU)\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-488801\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for hospital workers. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Operation Come Together\u2019s Clarksville operation has produced more than 20,000 masks since it started on March 20th, said founder Victoria Shoulders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The operation has more than 200 volunteers, but it needs more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe demand is growing more and more,\u201d Shoulders said. \u201cWe need more sewers. We need more volunteers here cutting fabric and T-shirt ties. College students are greatly needed right now to volunteer from our site to prep kits for our sewers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Operation Come Together has operations at Fort Campbell KY, Hopkinsville KY, Clarksville TN, Dover TN, Erin TN, Dickson TN, Cookeville TN, as well as Robertson County, Sumner County and Davidson County. Every operation is responsible for its area\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n<p>The main distribution site is at 327 Warfield Boulevard in Clarksville.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you want to help, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.operationcometogether.com\" >www.operationcometogether.com<\/a> or call 931.220.9896.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[470center]<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Anything I can do to help\u2019<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_488802\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-3.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-488802\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-488802\" title=\"Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for Fort Campbell. (APSU)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/APSU-theatre-professor-Leni-Dyer-sewing-masks-for-health-care-workers-Operation-Come-Together-3-480x341.jpg\" alt=\"Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for Fort Campbell. (APSU)\" width=\"480\" height=\"341\"\/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-488802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Masks Austin Peay State University Professor Leni Dyer sewed for Fort Campbell. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Dyer said helping was a no-brainer for her, especially with her sewing skills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me it\u2019s a great honor because I feel like anything that I can do to help somebody, anything that I can do to give back is always at the forefront of anything that I do,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n<p>If she still had face-to-face classes with her students, Dyer would ask them to help.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would have gotten my whole class in on this, and we would have been making factory-level masks,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Teaching a sewing class online<\/h3>\n<p>After APSU moved spring and summer classes online, Dyer had to adapt her sewing and advanced makeup classes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sat down, and I really thought about the two classes,\u201d she said. \u201cOn ground, if somebody\u2019s machine was messing up, I could go over and explain it to them, I could sew something and show them how I did it. It\u2019s really a hands-on kind of class.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[320left]Dyer asked which of her students didn\u2019t have sewing machines at home. Four didn\u2019t, so she adapted the class to have everybody work on all the parts of the next sewing project that they could (get, tend and cut the patterns, for example). Those who had machines sewed, and those who didn\u2019t worked on another project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve offered to FaceTime with them or anything like Zoom to be able to help them if they\u2019re really having trouble,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat (the pandemic) actually has done is made me much closer with those students. When they\u2019re in class, they ask the questions, but this has been more personal.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>To learn more<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>If you want to help Operation Come Together, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.operationcometogether.com\" >operationcometogether.com<\/a> or call 931.220.9896.<\/li>\n<li>The APSU College of Arts and Letters has launched a YouTube coronavirus-coping series named &#8220;We Can&#8217;t Make It Without the Arts.&#8221; You can watch it at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCSkVyz5sPG2i-uqrpuvWXSQ\" >https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCSkVyz5sPG2i-uqrpuvWXSQ<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>To learn more about the APSU Department of Theatre and Dance, go to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/theatre-dance\/\" >https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/theatre-dance\/<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>To learn more about Leni Dyer, visit <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/theatre-dance\/departmental-info\/faculty\/leni-dyer.php\" >https:\/\/www.apsu.edu\/theatre-dance\/departmental-info\/faculty\/leni-dyer.php<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clarksville, TN &#8211; When the coronavirus pandemic forced Austin Peay State University (APSU) Professor Leni Dyer to stay home in mid-March, she wanted to find a way to help during the crisis. \u201cMy first instinct was how can I help, what can I do other than just sitting at home waiting for this to end?\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,5762,21145,262,512,825,6621,7758,4973,3211,12603,34705,150,1233,3374,1435,34706,8902,5144,28904,34707,12493],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7sB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28682,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28681\/revisions\/28682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}