One nursing student at Calhoun Community College is dedicating time to making masks for local health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's just a little pillow for the nose so the wire doesn't cut into the nose,"Alisha Baldwin, a nursing student at Calhoun, said describing her face masks."

Baldwin estimates making about 350 masks since the start of the pandemic. She's dedicating most of her days to making them

"About 9 hours a day," she said.

But, Baldwin doesn't mind the long hours and hard work, because she knows first-hand how beneficial these masks are and she's helping the very people who once helped her.

"I've had cancer before and I've worn a mask for many years," she said.

She said she started making masks for some of her friends in the health care field, but once she realized the need for them — she kept making them.

"It started out with just one friend. I gave it to her and then she brought it into work and the co-workers wanted it and it just kind of spread out from there," she said.

Baldwin has not only donated her masks to local hospitals, but also to Vanderbilt in Tennessee, and says she chose that hospital for one special reason.

"That is where I had my bone marrow transplant for leukemia and so I wanted to help the nurses up there who impacted my life," she said.

And, Baldwin said so far there have been no complaints.

"Main response is their super comfortable, and they like the colors - the different patterns on them," she said.

Even though Baldwin’s only in her first year of nursing school, the pandemic is strengthening her passion to become a nurse.

"The hours they put in, the commitment they have I really like a profession where that commitment is there so it just made me more sure that this is what I want to do," Baldwin said.

Baldwin said she is going to continue to make the masks even while still in school. She said she doesn't plan on stopping until the pandemic ends.