Anna Nations, a field market access manager with medical device manufacturing company Boston Scientific, is a member of her company’s COVID Relief Project Team. 

As part of her work on that team, Nations has been making masks and hand sanitizer for residents and workers at Oak Hill Senior Living and Rehabilitation Center and Garden Place Senior Living. 

Nations said she decided to help Waterloo because there are no assisted living facilities in her town and her son is an eighth grader at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church who plans to attend Gibault Catholic High School. 

“Even though we live in Smithton, I feel like we live in Waterloo because our son goes to school there,” Nations said. “Waterloo feels like our community.” 

Boston Scientific originally started its COVID Relief Project Team as a way for its employees to help out the families of their coworkers during the pandemic. 

When it realized there was not a large need, the team shifted focus to helping the communities in which workers live.

Nations, who frequently does volunteer work and promptly joined the team, then contacted Oak Hill and Garden Place to see what those facilities needed. 

The answer was masks for residents and pocket-sized bottles of hand sanitizer for the staff. 

So, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and supplies donated by friends, family and neighbors, Nations began using her nights and weekends to make those products. 

She has made and delivered 60 masks and 30 bottles of hand sanitizer to those two facilities so far, with more in the works. 

Each week when she drops them off, Nations said she also checks to see if there are any new needs. That also gives her a chance to see the reaction to her work.

“It’s very gratifying,” she said. “It’s great to see them smile when I drop off supplies every week.”