Highway superintendent’s request for masks answered
Town of Highlands Highway Superintendent Pat Patterson may have been inspired by a Bible verse last Thursday when he put out a very specific request on social media.
Matthew 7:7 says ‘Ask and ye shall receive…” In this case, the passage held true.
“Hi friends,” he wrote. “As you all know I am the highway superintendent for the Town of Highlands and proud of it. I need a favor. As you know our Sanitation and Highway Departments are picking up your trash as they do every day and do a great job at it!
I need 10 homemade masks to help prevent these hard working men from getting the COVID-19. This will include one for each employee and one for the building inspector. Please help me find someone that will be so gracious to make them for us. Thank you in advance; God bless and stay healthy!”
It didn’t take long at all for Patterson’s request to be answered, in abundance.
“I am overwhelmed at the support we received,” he said this week. “And it was not just Highland Falls and Fort Montgomery residents, but people I know from elsewhere in the county and state. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of them.”
He said he — “nearly immediately” — got homemade masks from “outstanding community residents”, including Ryan Reynolds, Jessica Kelley and Olga Anderson. He also received several N95 masks from Mickey Bailey, and 50 hospital masks from Orange County, thanks to Jim DiSalvo and County Legislator Steve Brescia.
“And other people are still making them,” he said. “We now have masks we can use every day — because of the nature of our jobs, we go through more than one in a day, and having these extras will allow us to swap them out, wash them, and still have extras. Again, I am just so appreciative.”
Patterson said his employees are working full time, but trying to get their work done as quickly as possible, to reduce their exposure to themselves and each other.
“They come in, do their work, and go home,” he said. “But their work has been extra taxing the last few weeks — I think everyone stuck at home right now is cleaning out their basements, attics and garages!”
