Carmel Valley siblings give back by sewing 475 Mighty Masks

Carmel Valley siblings Makenna and Carson Doan have stepped up to create Mighty Masks, making 475 homemade face masks to help provide personal protective equipment for their community.

Mighty Masks has now distributed masks to Sharp Healthcare, UCSD Healthcare, assisted living facilities such as Silverado Memory Care Community, Grossmont Gardens and St. Pauls Senior Services as well as volunteers of outreach programs at St. Therese Catholic Church. They have even sent masks to soldiers stationed in Poland. Although most Mighty Masks will not go to frontline healthcare providers, they will be used for all support staff and as a last line of defense and back up for providers who find themselves without standard CDC-approved masks.

Carson Doan shows off some finished masks.

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Carson, a freshman at Canyon Crest Academy, and Makenna, a junior at Cathedral Catholic High School, have been keeping themselves pretty busy since schools closed on March 13.
“I really miss my friends and fencing,” said Carson. “She misses her sports.”

Makenna’s lacrosse season was cut short and she is also missing out on water polo competitions.

For the siblings, the decision to take action was personal as their father is a physician for Sharp Rees Stealy Medical Group. It was terrifying to think about him going to see patients without the proper protection.

“We really wanted to do something besides just sitting at home,” Carson said.

“We saw it as a great opportunity to help our community and give back,” Makenna said.

Makenna had previous sewing experience from when she made her formal dress with her mom—she first sketched out the design, her mom created a pattern and showed her the ropes of sewing. For Carson, he had to learn a whole new skill as they sew the masks from dish towels and elastic.

Makenna Doan made this Mighty Mask artwork to spread the word on social media.

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Makenna, an artist, also created Mighty Mask drawings to help spread the word about their project on social media to help get donations, supplies and to get other teens involved—their website includes instructions on how to make a mask and help the cause.

The Doans have two sewing machines in their house and when at work, the siblings form somewhat of an assembly line to put the masks together, each one doing a step of the process. While their initial goal with Mighty Masks was to make 400, they have surpassed that goal by quite a bit.

“We’re just trying to keep doing it as long as we can for our community because a lot of nursing homes are still reaching out to us because they need masks,” Makenna said.

To learn more, visit mighty-mask.com

Makenna Doan sews a Mighty Mask.

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