Atlantic Ballet Makes Masks To Keep Staff Employed And The Community Safe
MONCTON – Gelena Devedjinejad used to make about 100 costumes a year for performances offered by the Atlantic Ballet of Canada. But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the former medical doctor has switched to making fabric masks.
Originally from Turkmenistan, Devedjinejad was an obstetrician-gynecologist who came to Canada as a refugee in 2007. She couldn’t practice in Canada because the process to equalize her credentials would mean starting “all over again from the very beginning,” she said.
She has been the head seamstress for the Atlantic Ballet, a non-profit charity, since 2015. Up to a few weeks ago, she was making costumes for the performances of the younger students at the company’s after-school program.
“We were busy with costumes and also I was driving the school bus for the kids, which were attending our after-school program at our company,” she said.
But performances have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, and the teachers have moved their program online. In the meantime, seeing how difficult life has become for many people due to the COVID-19 crisis, Devedjinejad wanted to help in some way. So she asked CEO Susan Chalmers-Gauvin if she can start making masks.
At first, the masks were made for staff. But soon enough, they saw a need in the larger community as well.
“There was not enough masks even for the medical workers, so I told Susan, ‘let’s see if we can help with anything. Maybe we can switch and make some masks for people’,” Devedjinejad said. “She said we can try…because it was a really new field for us.”
“We pulled together the team – Gelena and some of the other staff members that we know can sew,” Chalmers-Gauvin said. “Maybe this can be an income to keep us going, whether it’s two weeks or three weeks or four weeks, at least until we find out if we qualify for the wage subsidy, which will be a big help.”
Chalmers-Gauvin received a flurry of orders after posting about it on Facebook, in which she laid bare the organization’s struggles. In about 24 hours, they received orders for 500 masks, and in about a week, nearly 1,000 orders.
Those include large orders from businesses and individuals that are donating the masks to the homeless community and essential workers. Some of the masks are made with Western African pagne fabric, donated by Ginette Martin, former Canadian ambassador to the Republic of Congo.
People can make orders through the company’s website.
“It was just incredible and really wonderful to see the community respond that way because I was honest, I said we’re trying not to lay off our staff, this will help us keep going, can you help us?'” she said.
“In less than a week, there’s been such a rallying of community support, both to help us but also to help the vulnerable in the community. It makes me very, very proud and I feel very fortunate to live here in New Brunswick.”
Devedjinejad is helped by another seamstress and two dance teachers, including the head of the dance faculty Yuliia Shevchenko. They’re “on catch up mode” to fill the orders, and at between $10 to $15 per mask, they just about cover the costs, Chalmers-Gauvin said.
“This week, we should be able to get most of those orders out. And then, what we’re seeing now is kind of a steady pace of orders and I think that we’ll be able to manage a steady pace of orders,” she said.
Chalmers-Gauvin said with some income from the masks, and an early release of funding from the province to the organization, she hasn’t had to lay off anyone yet.
“We’ve been going day to day, week to week to determine whether or not we have to lay people off,” she said. “It appears that we will be able to access the wage subsidy … So with all of these things, we should be okay, I would think, looking at the numbers right now.”
While she’s been in meetings with ballet and arts organizations from across the country to try and figure out how to stay afloat, the quick loss of revenue has been “scary,” she said.
“It was incredibly shocking because your revenues dropped by 40 percent within the span of two to three days. We lost our tour in Quebec that was coming up in March, that was the first big blow. And just the tailspin behind it, all of our performances that were scheduled after that were cancelled because theatres in Atlantic Canada shut down,” she said.
The dance education program offered after school and on weekends, which has been a major contributor to the company’s revenue with 150 students enrolled, has also stopped. The dancers still teach students online for free.
“That keeps us connected to the community,” Chalmers-Gauvin said.
To add to her worries, most of the dancers on staff are newcomers, some still on temporary work permits.
On the one hand, they were unlikely to be able to return to their home countries safely as borders closed around the world, flights were stopped and traveling poses a high risk of contracting the virus.
On the other hand, as the federal and provincial governments rolled out programs to help workers, there was much uncertainty as to whether Atlantic Ballet’s staff could access funds if they lost their income given their immigration status.
“It was just a lot of concerns happening very, very quickly,” Chalmers-Gauvin said. “We’re feeling a lot of responsibility in making sure they’re looked after.”
There was also a lot of uncertainty in the first few weeks on whether charities and non-profit organizations would be able to access federal programs like the 75 percent wage subsidy. But Chalmers-Gauvin was hopeful and they are now eligible. Her aim was just to keep going with all 23 staff intact for a few weeks until the organization can figure out access to that subsidy.
“I’m glad our company was able to keep us working because a lot of people lost their jobs, and our company switched to what we’re doing right now, and it’s very helpful for us as well, for the employees,” Devedjinejad said.
“I would like to thank people for ordering from us…It’s good for us to help people, and it’s good for the community to be safe.”