Sackville man hopes personalized buttons make mask wearing more friendly
Scott Langille, a participant at Open Sky Cooperative in Sackville, is learning employable skills while making it easier to connect in masks.
Langille, with his mentor Pete Stephenson, an employee at the charity, are making and selling buttons that feature the owner's smiling face.
It's to help people connect when they're covered up by scarves, hats, winter coats and of course, mandatory masks.
"We came up with the idea of making these buttons so that we can be able to see what people look like under their masks," said Langille.
"We feel that being able to see people's faces will encourage better communication during this difficult time."
Open Sky Cooperative is an organization that helps people with mental health issues or other barriers like autism integrate into the community, often through employment skills. The big yellow house on the edge of the Tantramar Marsh is also a working farm.
The dozen participants and staff do all the work from tending the vegetables to cleaning chicken coops and entertaining the goats.
Langille is a big proponent of the program, and has obviously put a lot of work into his button making initiative. He has carefully written notes, with diagrams that he follows as he assembles each handmade button.
They were first made available to the public last weekend at the Sackville Farmer's Market.
"We got a lot of people interested in this enterprise so far," said Langille.
The buttons are $5 each with the money going back to the co–op to pay for more programs. People can send their own photo, or Langille can take one for another $5.
Heather Payne, is a customer and a volunteer at the coop. She stopped by to pick up the button she'd ordered earlier.
"I think it's a really great idea because some people you run into but you don't quite recognize them right away with a mask on because it covers over half your face," said Payne.
And, she expects her button to become more useful as winter sets in.
"I'm sure it's only going to get more cumbersome with hats, scarves and everything else," she said.
Stephenson said the start up money for the button business came from the town of Sackville.
"That was money that we had applied for to do programming that was cancelled because of COVID-19," said Stephenson.
"So our executive director pivoted and asked the council if we could redirect the money for this special program."
Langille said aside from using a button making machine, Langille has learned much more.
"Some valuable experience dealing with the public, learning some solid entrepreneurship skills, some marketing, the customer service, taking photographs of people and basically putting himself out there and in the public eye,"said Stephenson.
Skills that Langille hopes can help him have meaningful work when the pandemic and the program are over.
