Hero Headbands
Submitted By: Janet Holland
(Images provided by Janet Holland)
When the pandemic first started, everyone wanted to help❤️ Many people were making masks. Unfortunately, I don’t sew much.
Then, I saw a post about someone sewing buttons on headbands and giving them to nurses at the hospital. I thought, I CAN DO THAT!
I started on April 2nd. I asked a good friend, Linda if she would like to help. Luckily, she did. I posted on our local Oro Valley women’s community page, asking if there are nurses that would like a headband with buttons sewn on to prevent the mask loops pulling on their ears. One of the first nurses to respond was Andrea at TMC. She became our tester. We gave her some different ones to try out and pass around to other nurses. We soon started to get many more requests for headbands.
I decided to reach again through the OV women’s community web page. This time I asked for volunteers to sew on buttons. I provided the supplies. I put them in baggies and left them in a basket on my porch. I had 23 wonderful ladies on my Super Sewing Team. Also, many, many people dropped off and donated headbands and buttons.
We were getting more and more requests for our headbands. A very good friend, John, set up a website for us so that it would be easier for people to give us their requests. HEROHEADBANDS.com was born❤️
My daughter designed and ordered business cards for us. Those were placed in the bag with each filled request. We usually added in a few extra with every order, that way they could share the love.
I asked my super sewing team about putting our name on the headbands. One of the sweet ladies, Aracelli started cutting the letters out on her cricut machine. She loaned me her iron on press machine. The set up is, I run around all over town buying all the SCUNCI headbands that I can find, order buttons online. (Sometimes I can find headbands online, sometimes not.) Then, Aracelli cuts out the logos. I iron the logos on. I then put the bags of headbands and buttons in a basket on my porch and the super sewing team picks them up. In a few days they drop off the finished headbands and pick up more. The people that requested Hero Headbands stops by and picks up their completed headbands in another basket on my porch. We didn’t want to turn down any request. So, Sometimes, we mail them to nurses in other states.
Most of the nurses were so very kind and thankful for our headbands. Most of them dropped off thank you cards with cash donations in them. We are humbled by their praise. One nurse, Alex, has made generous donations to our project. Alex has distributed over 1000 of our headbands to several large hospitals on the south side of town. We are happy to be able to help in our own small way.
I’ve enjoyed this so much. Aracelli and I created different design headbands; flower power, UofA, paw print, Salute to the military, 4th of July, some with hearts, and some with stars. We have had drawings for donated gift baskets to give to nurses. We have donated extra funds raised through our paw print headbands to local animal shelters. We have donated around 4000 headbands to healthcare workers, first responders, teachers and students. These 6 ladies: Ericka, Heylie, Maria, Christy, Desiree and Aracelli have each sewn 100s of headbands.
I would never have been able to do any of this with out these amazing ladies! I am so thankful for the love, support and encouragement that this project has received from the community, the nurses, my neighbors, my friends and my family❤️ It is amazing what a little kindness can do. Every positive thing that all of us do everyday, makes the world a better place.
To stay up-to-date on Janet and her team’s amazing work, visit their website: http://heroheadbands.com/