The community’s health and safety has been a constant through Michele Redel’s career. She worked as a nurse for 30 years, recently retired as the safety coordinator for the Lick Observatory, and remains employed as the chief licensed water operator for the observatory.
When the pandemic hit locally, Redel thought about how she could help. As a quilter with more than 40 years experience, she decided to start making masks for the close-knit community at Lick Observatory. She sewed 50 masks for the Lick community, and expanded her work to support the campus community, completing 200 masks.
“No one knows when this pandemic will be over or what changes to our lives it will bring, whether temporary or indefinite,” Redel said. “The community at Lick Observatory will be here to hit it head on and do our part to support Lick Observatory as a community and the University of California, Santa Cruz as a whole.”
With summer on the horizion, Redel and a couple friends just finished making masks for nearby firefighters so that they, too, can protect themselves against COVID–19.
