Staying Positive and Solving Problems During the Pandemic 2020 is a year students will read about in history books generations from now. From the COVID-19 pandemic to social unrest surrounding civil rights to a turbulent election season, Americans will not soon forget the start of this decade. We conquered and made our way through challenge after challenge. But there were bright spots in this dark year. Air Force veteran John Goubeaux kept his positive attitude and came up with a way to help fill an immediate need many people faced. John usually wears disposable masks for his regular doctor appointments, but he couldn’t find any masks when the pandemic began. When he saw people wearing cloth ones, that sparked an idea.
John went to the craft store, and his wife and caregiver Vicky helped him pick out some fabric and elastic. “The store workers gave me one, so I took it apart to see how it was made,” John said. “It took about five hours to make one.” John lives with traumatic brain injury (TBI) but likes to keep his brain active by solving problems. John made masks for himself and his wife, and when people saw them wearing homemade masks, they asked about them. John offered to make masks for his friends. Making masks on a larger scale by hand would take a lot of time, so he decided to use his stimulus check to buy a sewing machine. Stores were completely sold out, so he ordered one on a TV shopping channel, and it took a month to arrive. “Like anything in the military, when there’s a problem, I work it out,” John said. “I can measure, I can cut, and I figured it out.” At one of John’s doctor appointments, a nurse noticed his mask, and she said their office needed some. This motivated him to start making masks for the hospital. John also created a Plexiglas template that he used to make the masks. If he accidentally cuts the fabric too small, he figured that’s fine because he’d just cut a little extra fabric off, and that becomes a mask for a child. “I realized the need was really great,” John said. In addition to making masks for his wife, friends, hospital workers, and children, he also made some for bank employees, fellow Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) warriors, his WWP Independence Program coach, and people at the school his coach’s children attend. He also donated some to the fabric store so they could give them to a hospital, and he takes some into the clinic every time he goes. “You know how people say the glass is half full or half empty?” John asked. “It’s not about that. At least I have a glass. I have a glass, so I can help.” John said making masks for others empowers him. “It gives me purpose in the evening, some positive thought, something I can do with my own two hands,” John said. “It’s not easy, but I can still do it. It’s a process where I just work through a problem and find a solution.”
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WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / DECEMBER 2020