One night in April, I received a PM from Judy, a yarn sister here in Baguio City, about making earsavers for the Baguio General Hospital (BGH). At that time, Baguio City and the whole of Luzon was already in lockdown due to the Corona virus pandemic.
I had seen earsavers being made by other crocheters from various crochet groups that I have joined. However, I didn’t know at that time that it made such a big difference to the frontliners. I didn’t pay much attention to Judy’s message and just didn’t reply to her for a few more days as I was busy coping with the effects of the lockdown on my family. A few days after Judy’s message about making the earsavers, a woman named Erina posted on our Facebook Group Crochet Anteys and Angkels of Baguio about a request from BGH for earsavers.
It turns out that Erina has founded the Facebook Page, Earsavers for Lifesavers PH. It was a group and a movement that started giving earsavers to people who had to wear facemasks for a prolonged time – doctors, nurses, midwives, people in the medical field. She endorsed the request from BGH to our Baguio Crochet Group and soon, members of Crochet Anteys and Angkels of Baguio started commenting on the post, expressing interest and willingness to make and donate earsavers for our frontliners. And this was the start of our group’s Earsavers Campaign in Baguio-Benguet.
First we gave to the main hospitals in our City, BGH, SLU, Notre Dame and then we sent hundreds of earsavers to Benguet General Hospital and to the Cordillera Divine Grace. We also didn’t forget non-medical frontliners such as the DSWD, Health Centers, Municipal Health Offices, and even send some to the pharmacy workers of SM Watsons.
As of May 31, 2020, the members of Crochet Anteys and Angkels of Baguio have made and distributed over 2, 800 earsavers to the frontliners in Baguio City. It may be small thing and some may think that it really doesn’t make a difference but I’d like to believe that doing something helpful, no matter how small, always counts.
At first, I didn’t really think that making earsavers was going to contribute much to the fight against Corona virus. But after personally seeing the joy in the eyes of those who received an earsaver, reading the thank you messages, I was convinced that the Earsavers Campaign was worth doing. I’m grateful to Judy and Erina, and to everyone who donated their time, love, and resources for this cause. The donors – selfless people, kind and generous hearts. I was so happy to see that people who have never met before can come together to help those in need. Many times I’ve been disillusioned by society in general, but this campaign has restored my faith in humanity.