After a New Jersey girl learned that dozens of U.S. Army medics were assisting with COVID-19 patients at a local hospital, she figured out how to help in her own way.
It all started when Sima Farid, a social worker at UMDNJ/Rutgers Hospital, told her 13-year-old daughter Sophia that 86 Army medics were being sent to the Newark hospital to help coronavirus efforts.
Sophia told her mom she wanted to use her allowance to have 100 masks made so the medics could have clean face coverings.
Farid contacted Denise Jones, a woman she knew already making masks, and asked if she was up to the challenge of making 100 masks.
All 100 masks were completed by Sunday, just over two weeks after Jones started work on them. The masks are expected to be distributed Friday by the medics' commander and the CEO of the hospital.
"Sophia's love for humanity isn't a new phenomenon," said James Carey, co-founder of the NJ Misaada Relief Squad.
"She's always lending a helping hand in one way or another. During the summer, she purchased a pallet of water and donated it to Paradise Baptist Church during Newark's water crisis," Carey recalled of the young teen's philanthropic attitude.