CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The community supporting Shamrock Gardens Elementary School in Charlotte is stepping up to provide KN95 masks to students amid the COVID-19 omicron variant spike.
Jillian Longsworth, mother of a fourth-grader at Shamrock Gardens, started a GoFundMe page on Jan. 13 asking the community to help fund masks for students at the school.
Longsworth said she had COVID-19 in July 2020 with lasting long-haul COVID symptoms.
As the omicron variant started to spread rapidly and schools across the state began to see an uptick in cases among students and staff, the rise brought up renewed concerns for her daughter, other students, and educators.
"From someone who has had COVID and long-haul, there's another layer of anxiety that goes along with that and safety,” Longsworth said.
The CDC recently revised its mask guidance to say that KN95s and N95s offer more protection than cloth face coverings.
Longsworth said she contacted her daughter’s teacher to ask if there was a need for this kind of mask. Her daughter’s teacher told her there was. However, Longsworth said she quickly realized this kind of mask may not be an affordable purchase for every household.
"Looking at the pricing is sort of where I started feeling like this is not going to be accessible for everyone,” she said.
To make the KN95s more equitable for every student, Longsworth started the GoFundMe page. In a matter of days, she raised $1,250 to buy a thousand masks for Shamrock Gardens Elementary.
"I hope that for those students that can't afford or that do not have access to them, I hope that they are the first priority,” Longsworth said.
Longsworth said she dropped off the masks at the school on Tuesday. She hopes it may inspire other communities to do their part to keep students safe.
"I think if we can just get more citizens out there within the community to do the same, I mean we could provide masks for every school,” Longsworth added.
The GoFundMe page Longsworth created is still open for donations if anyone wants to provide funds for masks at Shamrock Gardens or another school in need.
Contact Kendall Morris at kmorris2@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.