A small project weaves into a larger, ear-saving ministry during COVID-19
A crocheted ear saver for a daughter’s work mask was only the beginning.
Kim Mosely, a night house supervisor at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Washington, has been crocheting since the age of eight, when her mother taught her the handicraft.
As a child, crocheting helped Kim alleviate boredom during those frequent times her mother didn’t feel well, due to severe lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Little did Kim realize, years later the crocheting that helped her pass time as a child would end up helping so many others.
It all began when Kim’s daughter, Andrea Phillips, asked her mother to make something to help keep her ears from blistering, due to the chafing caused by the masks she’s had to wear for many hours on her shift as an X-ray tech at the same hospital during COVID-19.
Kim went online to look for ideas and came across a crocheted “ear saver.” Inspired, she set to work crocheting one with large buttons that a mask could be attached to, rather than the ears, and prevent chafing.
The ear saver worked well for her daughter, and word got out. Nurses in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit asked if Kim would make some for them. And she did, crocheting 25 ear savers and giving them to the ICU nurses and other hospital caregivers.
Kim then crocheted and gave away 125 more ear savers, and her crochet hook continued to keep busy. “It’s become a little ministry for me . . . a gift to caregivers because they work the COVID floors, and to those who have to wear them for 12 hours at a time,” she says. “I ask them how many they want and in what color.”
Kim has already given away 530 ear savers and spent 235 hours of her own time and supplies to make them.
“Her ear savers are one of the many reasons Kim is an inspiration to many of us,” shares Sean Gregory, chief executive for PeaceHealth’s Columbia network. “Kim, thank you for setting such a great example of living our Mission. I was so impressed with what you did that I shared it with my children as an example of how we can all find things to do for the people around us.”
“While Kim wants no praise for this, she so deserves it,” says Kathleen Heim, director of service lines in Patient Care Administration at PeaceHealth Southwest. “Her thoughtful and kind gift to us has saved our ears and made our days better.”
