Masks from China sent to Tribal Clinic
KESHENA — A tiny congregation in Neopit, a 95-year-old volunteer in Winneconne and the Menominee Tribal Clinic have formed a connection to a group of anonymous Christian donors in China.
The connection is through face masks, handmade covers to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The connection has led to over 200 homemade masks coming from a group of seamstresses in Winneconne and over 100 masks — including hard-to-find N95 masks — from a church in China.
The route to the masks starts in Zoar.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Zoar is one of the oldest in the denomination, dating back over 70 years, according to church member Eric Johnson. The organization also has a church in Morgan Siding and one in Oshkosh, where Johnson is a member. The Zoar church needed someone to fill in as pastor “to come in and preach,” and they reached out to Johnson.
It was at Zoar that Johnson met Chris Caldwell, who is the interim president of the College of Menominee Nation.
Johnson’s wife, Barb, was coordinating a sewing project at the Henrietta Apartments in Winneconne, the home of Millie Mathison, age 95 and mother of Shawano resident Matty Mathison. Seven people were sewing for the Menominee Tribal Clinic. When Eric Johnson learned of the possible donation of masks from a Christian church in China, he contacted Caldwell — a fellow church member and leader in the Menominee community — to help coordinate the donation in Keshena.
Eric Johnson worked with “Frank,” a church member in China, who does not use his real name because of the threat of persecution by the Chinese government, Johnson said. The group was sending up to 5,000 masks to the United States. They did not make the masks but instead raised the money to purchase and send them.
The cost of shipping was donated by a “generous person in China,” Johnson said. “Even the poorest people are generously donating the shipping dollars, and somebody provided the masks.”
Each mask was individually packaged in sterile packaging, he said. Even so, because of the spread of the disease in China, he quarantined the masks for three days after receiving them.
“I’m a cautious man,” he said.
Johnson contacted Caldwell to accept the donation, which will help protect patients and staff at the Menominee Tribal Clinic.
He said he did find it ironic that the donation comes from China, which has been named as a possible initial source of the COVID-19 virus.
“It is ironic that we are getting masks. Couldn’t they use them there? Yes, they could,” Johnson said. “The Chinese people who did this want complete anonymity — to be recognized only by what they did,” he said.
From Zoar to Winneconne to Keshena, the project has shown him how connected people are, Johnson said.
“Somebody I don’t know in China reached out and said, ‘I have masks,’” he said. He recounted the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan, who stops to help someone in need, even when others did not.
“I like that story, and I like the instruction that we should help others,” he said.