In order to provide both personal protective equipment and spread some “Panther Pride” at Parkway Manor Elementary School, Student Council President Elena Vargas and her grandmother, Elaine Swaintek, worked together to create 100 Parkway Manor Spirit Masks for the graduating fifth-grade class.

Swaintek of Alburtis spoke with The Press June 3 about the collaborative effort.

She has been making masks since the COVID-19 pandemic started, and has donated around 1,000 masks to workers and organizations around Lehigh and Berks counties.

“When news reports kept coming out about a lack of PPE for front line workers, I started calling around initially to my own physician’s offices to ask if the people were working there had masks,” Swaintek said.

“In most cases, the answer was they were wearing one mask for an entire week, and they would be thrilled to get some masks.”

Swaintek donated masks to not only health care workers but also postal workers, trash collectors, tree surgeons and city employees.

“It gave me some purpose and some feeling of control during the pandemic to do it,” she said.

She also provided masks and additional resources to immigrant families at the Berks County Residential Center in Reading through a connection made by her daughter, Rebecca Swaintek, an immigration attorney in Philadelphia.

“They’re holding families there awaiting hearings … Those people had no masks at all, so I made masks for families being held there - mothers, fathers, children as young as 1-year-old,” Elaine Swaintek said.

Swaintek said Elena was aware of the ongoing mask-making operation, and they decided during the last week of May to collaborate on a project for her granddaughter’s fifth-grade classmates.

“I typically take care of my grandchildren after school and, of course, with the pandemic both parents are working from home, schools closed, and I haven’t been able to see my grandkids for a couple of months because we were distancing,” Swaintek explained. “My oldest granddaughter, Elena, she’s a real crafts person.

“She sews a little bit, and I discussed with my granddaughter about how we could do something nice for the kids who are graduating.

“I said I’ll make all the masks for the fifth graders, and she said they will get some paw prints to put on them and package them,” Swaintek said.

Elena’s mother, Lauren Vargas, contacted Parkway Manor and the school provided all the necessary fabric for the mask project.

Swaintek picked up all the fabric from the front porch of her granddaughter’s home in South Whitehall to maintain social distancing.

“We never were in contact with each other during this whole thing,” she said, adding the family kept in contact via FaceTime.

After testing a student-size prototype, Swaintek made enough masks for the entire fifth-grade class, plus a special larger model for the school’s mascot.

“I dropped them off at my daughter’s house, and my granddaughter put all the paw prints on and put them in bags with a personal note as student council president,” she said.

“It took me approximately two days to make 100 masks. I just did it as if it were a full-time job.”

Swaintek was glad to have worked on the project with her granddaughter, and she hopes the effort will become a lasting positive memory.

“Even though she’s the outgoing student council president, she was still thinking about them despite the fact they didn’t get to end the school year the way they did, and they can still show their Panther Pride,” Swaintek said. “Maybe someday, when she’s older, and she recalls this crazy pandemic, one of the good memories will be ‘look at what my nana and I did.’ She’s a good kid.”

Elena said she wanted to start the mask-making project as a way of reassuring her classmates and showing support during these uncertain times.

“I wanted to do something special to let Parkway Manor know I care, and I want them to know that we’re going to get through this,” Elena said.

“And my grandma just made all of her masks, so she created them. I decorated them and we sent them out.”

Elena and her brother, Daniel, a third grader at Parkway Manor, added paw print patches as a way of showing school spirit.

In her note to her classmates, she wrote that the masks would allow her classmates to “keep showing our Panther Pride in the ‘New Normal.’”

Lauren Vargas was asked about the mascot mask.

She thought of the idea as a way to spread humor and solidarity with students who may need to wear masks during the upcoming school year.

“I just thought it would be funny and, with such little kids, I thought it would be fun for them to see the mascot wearing it with the kids, knowing that next year is going to be a little weird for everybody,” Lauren Vargas said.

“I thought it would just be hilarious,” Elena added.

The masks were distributed to the fifth-grade class when the students returned to pick up their personal belongings at the beginning of June.

“First, we put them in little plastic bags to make sure it was all sanitary. Then this week and next Monday at the school, everyone is driving by to pick up the things they left at school, so the teachers put one in everybody’s bag, and that’s how they got passed out,” Elena said.

She added feedback on the masks from her classmates has been positive.

“We had a Zoom meeting yesterday and the kids actually thought it was really cool,” Elena said. “I think it’s kind of sad I didn’t get to finish up my fifth-grade year but I’m glad we can still connect with each other.”

Speaking about the mask-making endeavor, Elena Vargas said despite the social distance between her and her grandmother, she was proud of their joint effort to keep the class safe and full of school spirit.

“I wish I could have seen my grandma while we were working on this,” Elena said. “I would have helped her actually make masks, but I’m glad we still got to work on the project together.”

She also offered well-wishes and helpful advice to her classmates and the Parkway Manor community as the outgoing student council president.

“I just have to say stay safe,” she said. “Stay socially distant; wash your hands or use hand sanitizer, and wear your mask!”

Lauren Vargas commended Parkway Manor for helping with the material and keeping students educated and connected during the pandemic.

She was happy to see Elena working with her grandmother to commemorate her fifth-grade graduation in a unique way.

“I’m always proud of her but this was a really cool thing that she could do, and I’m incredibly proud of her for it,” Lauren Vargas said.