Gary Robinson is assistant fire chief in Chilmark and emergency management director in Aquinnah.

On Saturday, Mr. Robinson and his team started a mission to sew masks for the hospital. The team has also reached out to other Island organizations like the Hebrew Center and senior centers to widen the scope of the project.

“If we’re going to be housebound for two or three weeks, let’s get into our sense of community and give these people something to do,” Mr. Robinson said.

In addition to sewing masks, Mr. Robinson said the Aquinnah community emergency response team has been helping seniors by dropping off groceries and putting color-coded cards in their windows for residents to signal if they need help.

“Other than potential hurricanes and winter storms, we haven’t had to face something as potentially day-to-day life altering as this is,” he said. “It’s new waters for most of us.”

“The Island, instead of six different towns, is working as one voice,” he added.

The sense of community gives him confidence the Island will overcome this challenge

“There are no egos, everybody’s working together and with the citizens, they’re helping us out where they can,” he said. “We’re going to beat this thing.”

—Aaron Wilson