Her grandchildren, Murphy McAvaddy, 11, and Finley McAvaddy, 9, live in Johnston but visit grandma often in Fort Dodge.

“My grandkids have been making these masks just for fun and they thought maybe we could have a COVID conscious bake and mask sale,” O’Leary said. “Everything we baked was individually wrapped as were all the masks. We had bottles of water also.”

Murphy and Finley made the face masks in Johnston. The bake sale was held in Fort Dodge outside of O’Leary’s home.

O’Leary also sold the masks on social media.

-Submitted photo A collection of tie-dye face masks are displayed on a table in Johnston. The masks were made by the grandchildren of Sara O’Leary, of Fort Dodge.

All of this was done for a cause.

After covering the cost needed to make the masks, the rest of the money was donated to the Lord’s Cupboard, Webster County’s largest food pantry.

“We talked about how this coronavirus has affected a lot of people,” O’Leary said. “We just thought they could use some more support.”

The masks have been selling for $5.

O’Leary said about $300 has been donated to Lord’s Cupboard.

The masks didn’t take long to sell, she said.

“We blew through them pretty fast,” O’Leary said.

She said her grandchildren like making the masks, which are all tie-dye.

The masks start out white before they are soaked in a solution, washed and banded with rubber bands.

“You have to let that sit for several hours,” O’Leary said. “They are wrapped in plastic and then you wash them in hot water and it sets the color. After you wash them, the colors don’t run. They wash up really nice.”

Murphy and Finley originally started making the face masks because their mother, Molly McAvaddy, is a stylist in the Johnston area and she needed masks to wear.

“She needed masks to wear to work and thought of a creative way and something the kids could help her do and it just blossomed from there, because obviously this isn’t going away,” O’Leary said.

The bake and mask sale was nice to get Murphy and Finley active, O’Leary said.

“They loved it and loved interacting with people and loved the fact they were giving back to a community,” O’Leary said. “They are here enough. They visit a lot here in Fort Dodge. They really enjoyed it and I think they were very surprised the reaction we got out of people.”

O’Leary said Murphy and Finley will likely continue to make the masks.

“They haven’t decided yet, but the next masks they make they are going to choose a charity in Johnston,” O’Leary said.