how we got started

Like many Americans, the Allvin family learned of the critical shortage healthcare providers were experiencing in N95 and surgical masks to help keep them from breathing in or out the coronavirus. Determined to help even while sheltering in place, we launched a quick-start effort on March 21, 2020, to mobilize people in our communities to make and distribute reusable masks to those on the frontlines of the pandemic in urgent need of additional breathing protection.

In just 3 days, we delivered our first masks – 85, to an assisted living and memory care center in Falls Church, Virginia where two residents had contracted coronavirus. Soon, our growing cadre of family and community volunteers was making dozens, then hundreds of masks per week, sustained by the skilled labor of sewists and the generosity of those donating money to buy materials. And the masks have gone to hospitals, community clinics, nursing homes, home healthcare providers, and rehabilitation centers in northern Virginia, Washington DC, Washington state, and Arizona.

Our formula is simple: We employ easy-to-use online platforms to organize nearby neighbors quickly, raise money easily, and find local healthcare providers who need the masks. We have kept our organization lean and "flat," which has enabled us to move swiftly and focus our efforts on three basic tasks: (1) find and organize the people to help, (2) secure materials to make the masks, and (3) deliver the finished masks safely and hygienically.

The need for supplemental protection continues to dwarf the supply of these handmade masks, so we need help to grow our effort, and we offer this model freely to any community volunteers wishing to replicate it on their own.

Join us! Together, Let's Breathe.