The Airdrie Fire Department received a special delivery this week from a woman who's kept very busy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nicole Proseilo started making garment bags for nurses, doctors, nursing home staff, and other front line workers so that they could make sure their uniforms weren’t bringing germs into their homes. The staff could put their scrubs or clothes into the bag and toss them in the washing machine to be sanitized when they got home, helping avoid cross-contamination.

Soon there was a group of over 500 volunteers sewing and delivering bags to healthcare providers, first responders and nursing home staff all over Calgary and Airdrie. In total, they made over 11,000 scrub bags.

Proseilo said it started off as a way to have something positive to do during the COVID shut down when she was home from work and didn’t expect it would blow up the way it did.

“I honestly thought that I would just give these to the staff at the Children’s Hospital and that would be that. But, then it turned out to be this whole thing!” said Proseilo. “We had all these people bring in fabric donations, like we just had so many people doing such good things. It was so heartwarming that the community could come together and do something so positive during something so negative.”

They’ve delivered thousands of the bags, with the latest delivery being near and dear to the Airdrie woman’s heart.

“It felt really good to give back to the people that helped rescued me during a really scary point in my life, so it was great,” she said. “And nurses as well, I got to give them a nod and a thank-you, because they’re a really important part of our society.”

Deputy Fire Chief Garth Rabel said they are very appreciative of the support they’ve been receiving from the community through this crisis.

“This wonderful gift from Nicole to our team, is just overwhelming how the support comes for frontline all essential workers; grocery store workers to firefighters and nurses,” said Rabel. “It’s been remarkable to see our community pull together in times like this.”

Proseilo is back to work now and the bag initiative has slowed down, but they are still providing supplies to front line workers who need them.

 

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