She won't stop until COVID-19 does: Former refugee sews 1000s of masks

Celina Urbanowicz has been busy.

When COVID-19 hit, the 60-year-old went down to her basement and started sewing hundreds of face masks, staying up some nights until 5 a.m. on the labour of love.

Urbanowicz came to Canada 23 years ago from the former Yugoslavia, asa refugee fleeing the Kosovo War.The trained seamstress sayswhenthe pandemic offered her a chance to give back to the country that welcomed her, it was a no-brainer.

"Now has come the time to help Canadians," she said. "People want to help people and do their best. That's my mission."

'Today we honour her'

Urbanowicz'stwo daughters have been helping her sew and gather materials,reaching out to the community for donations when supplies got low.

As Mother's Day approached, they wanted to both surprise their mother and draw attention to the work she's been doing, so they went public with her story.

"She's just a wonderful, amazing woman. And I think that today, wehonourher and value her and we appreciate her," said Roksana Hajrizi, one of her daughters.

"This is how our mother always has been, and she's always taught us to always give a helping hand," said her other daughter, Camila Hajrizi.

"I can never be as half of the woman that she is, honestly."

Too many to count

So far, 300 of Urbanowicz'smasks and 600 gloves have gone to theManitock Place Retirement Community, where her son works as a chef.

Hundreds more have ended up atOttawa Carleton Lifeskills, where residents sent her pictures with notes of thanks after they received them.

Urbanowicz has also donated to The Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus, and says those masks will be distributed across eastern Ontario. Next, she wants to give some to CHEO, eastern Ontario's children's hospital, and the family is also hoping to supply masks, hand sanitizer and foodstuffs to the city's homeless population.

While she can't count how many masks she's made in total, Urbanowicz estimates it's close to 1,000.

And there's only one thing, she adds, that will bring an end to her work.

"When the corona stops,then I stop."