Tools for Teams

Connect your team with ours. We'll watch our efforts grow together!

1. Watch the brief orientation video on how to get started.
   

2. Share your new team information with us by completing a quick form. Don’t worry, it will only take about 30 seconds to complete!
   

3. Your team leader’s email address will serve as your unique team I.D. whenever you interact with us online. More on that later.
   
   NOTE: “Let’s Breathe” will ask you for your email address, but we DO NOT share email addresses with any other organizations, we keep addresses on a password-protected, cloud-based file, and we will only use it to communicate with you directly.
   
   It’s great if you just want to sew, but it’s also great if you want to start a group in your area.
   

4. You will be taken back to this page, which contains a step-by-step guide to get going, with multimedia tools to help you.

Find and organize your team quickly and nearby.

Where to find the team

Look within your personal range so you can minimize time and expense exchanging materials and masks.

• Nextdoor.com – This is an easy and popular interface that connects neighbors within neighborhoods, which Let’s Breathe has found very effective.

• Your networks – Try your HOA, your faith community, and your personal networks.

What to look for

Look for the right kinds of talent. There are a few major tasks you’ll need to plan for. One person will probably perform multiple tasks.

The team leader pulls together and manages a group of volunteers, organizing those who offer their skills to quickly get your masks into the hands of health care providers.

!! All volunteers must verify that they are HEALTHY !!

No volunteer who is feeling sick or has been exposed to anyone with symptoms (fever, shortness of breath, dry cough, or other) should make or transport masks or materials, to avoid contamination of masks or other people.

Be clear about your objectives

While it would be ideal for every person in your city to have a mask (and we know it’s difficult to have to turn down such requests), the needs can be endless and the Let’s Breathe campaign is devoted to providing our health care workers with masks.

Match volunteers to tasks

Not all volunteers will be able to sew! Your team leader or other volunteers may choose to fill several roles, including:

• Outreach (finding healthcare facilities needing masks, finding materials)

• Mask-making kit assembly

• Sewists (with sewing machine and skills)

• Donation management (raising money, tracking expenses, thanking donors)

A volunteer with social media skills is also a great "find" to identify new volunteers through tools such as NextDoor app, Facebook, etc.

Communicate with your team

Maintain a contact list of all of your volunteer members. Always remember to encourage, thank, and keep them informed about the progress of team efforts!

Consider using a simple, free video conferencing tool like Zoom connect effectively.

The person conducting this outreach identifies the local health care organization needing your masks, clarifies what your team is able to offer them, and keeps track of how many masks are needed.

Verify the specific type of mask you will provide

Rule #1 - KEEP IT SIMPLE! Let’s Breathe uses a few standard mask designs recommended by a major healthcare provider and consistent with CDC guidelines. Designed for effectiveness, comfort, and the ability to withstand hot washing and drying, short videos on lets-breathe.com show how to make them. If you use these standard designs, you will save time and complications.

If you really feel the need to offer a different style of mask, proceed thoughtfully. Not all sewists will be able to sew more complicated styles quickly. Remember your goal of delivering masks rapidly to as many providers as possible. If more complex designs are not required, you risk frustrating (and potentially losing) volunteers and slowing your project!

Contact health care groups near you to find out what they need:

Let’s Breathe is focusing our donation efforts on:

• Nursing homes / elder care / assisted living

• Home health care

• Medical rehabilitation centers

• Free Clinics

• Hospitals

We maintain this focus to ensure our efforts have maximum impact in a particular area, and we recommend you maintain similar focus.

Find them on Yelp or Medicare.gov

An easy way to find healthcare providers in your immediate area is to use either Yelp or the “nursing home compare” service on Medicare.gov.

• Both allow you to search by your ZIP code, and offer both lists and maps of nearby centers with complete contact information.

Pinpointing their needs

1. Describe what you can offer them

• Describe our basic designs that we sew.

• Some organizations may have specific requests, such as always using a patterned fabric to quickly distinguish from other types of masks they may have in use.

2. Ask how many masks are needed – for their health care staff who are in direct contact with patients or residents.

3. Set expectations – Let them know if you are already working to satisfy other requests.

4. Identify your contact – for coordinating questions and mask drop-offs. Provide your team contact information to them as well.

This role ensures that your team gets the materials they need as quickly as possible, so they can sew those masks!

Identify supply needs

Work with a knowledgeable sewist to plan for your team’s supply needs.

EXAMPLE: Each pleated mask requires:

• • • Two 6”x 9” pieces of 100% cotton fabric

    • Two 7” lengths of ¼” elastic

NOTE: If ¼” elastic is not available, 3/8” width will work but should be cut into 7-1/2” lengths instead, since it has less flexibility than the ¼”.

Find your supply sources

• • • Source locally, creatively, and cheaply. You may find supply donors in your sewists or local quilters, dry cleaners, tailors, bridal shops, etc.

    • Shop online if necessary. Find sources that will get you your materials quickly!

    • Check in with your team on their thread stockpile. You may not even need to buy any.

    • Purchase Ziploc bags for transporting kits and completed masks. They are easy to label and keep sanitized as they travel from person to person.

!! DO NOT USE !!

• Velcro – While creative, clinical reps indicate it does not sanitize satisfactorily.

• Ribbons – They are slippery, and they fray and disintegrate when heat-sanitized.

• Elastic ½” or larger – It is inflexible and uncomfortable. Even 3/8” is ‘stretching it’!

YOU MIGHT TRY…

If you can’t get 1/4” or 3/8” elastic and are desperate, try elastic headband material or ponytail holders but TEST it in hot wash/dry. Cut it open – if the interior is rubber, it will not hold up to hot sanitizing processes.

!! SANITIZE YOUR MATERIALS !!

If you have directly purchased elastic or fabric that is not pre-packaged and want to use it within 3 days of purchase, remember to sanitize it. To sanitize, you can dry fabric and elastic on high heat for 30 minutes. Toss elastic in a pillowcase and knot the pillowcase to minimize tangling.

To pay for materials, it helps to seek donations. In addition, buying locally also offers badly-needed support to struggling local merchants. The person handling this task needs to handle money, write reimbursement checks, and thank donors.

Find funding

If possible, use a variety of means to allow people to donate quickly and easily:

GoFundMe.com – Start here. It takes minutes to set up, gives you easy ways to promote the campaign on your social media channels and via email, and allows you to link a checking account to it so the money gets deposited automatically.

Alternatives – Some people prefer other platforms, such as PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle.

Designate checking account where funds transfer to

Each online pay platform will require you to link to a checking account where the online service can deposit your donations. Be sure you can account for every donation deposited.

The person who manages donations and reimbursements should have the ability to write checks from the account where the donations are being deposited.

Track expenses and reimbursements carefully

Create a simple log for receipts to track the date, merchant, items purchased and amount spent.

Require receipts for all reimbursements.

Let’s Breathe is simply a grassroots campaign, not a nonprofit organization! Contributions in-kind are not tax deductible.

Say thank you!

Every donor should receive a thank-you message. GoFundMe actually gives you an easy way to send each donor a quick note, so you do not need to track down contact information.

Treat donations discreetly, particularly if in GoFundMe the donor requests anonymity.

These donations are not tax deductible. Let’s Breathe is not a nonprofit organization.

The person in this role makes it as easy as possible for your sewing team to complete masks by putting together simple kits that can be hygienically handed off to them.

Materials you will need

• Cotton fabric to cut

• ¼” elastic

• Sealable plastic bags like Ziploc

• Sanitizing products

Always sanitize your workspace and hands when handling materials.

Sewing kits

Enclose in a Ziploc bag:

• 1 yard of 44”-wide fabric

• 18 feet of ¼” elastic
  (Sewists cut two 7” strips per mask. There’s a little extra here just in case.)

OR

• 20 feet of 3/8” elastic
  (Sewists cut two 8” strips per mask. There’s a little extra here just in case.)

If you are not working with 44”-wide fabric, have a sewist recalculate for you how many masks per yard, remembering to adjust your elastic lengths accordingly.

Tips:

1. 1. Consider enclosing a new Ziploc bag in your kit for hygienic return of completed masks.

   2. You won’t need a spool of thread in each kit, but have it available for when the needs arise.

   3. For sewing volunteers who begin with their own stock of thread and fabric, just offer them small bags of elastic in the lengths specified above.

   4. Store and transport everything in clean containers. We recommend plastic storage bins because they are easily disinfected between deliveries.

Sewists are the heart and soul of this campaign! They need access to a sewing machine.

Be healthy!

If you or anyone in your household are currently feeling sick or have been exposed to anyone with symptoms (fever, shortness of breath, dry cough, or other), do NOT make masks at this time, to avoid contamination of masks or other people while transporting them.

When handling materials and masks, practice regularly washing your hands with soap and water or sanitizing with hand sanitizer or disinfecting wipes. Sanitize all work surfaces.

Follow the patterns provided

While there is no requirement to stick to a particular style of masks, Let’s Breathe uses standard patterns recommended by health organizations. Your team lead will determine what your local healthcare organizations will and will not accept – so follow their lead.

TIP: Due to the small size of these masks, use narrow 1/4” seams rather than standard 5/8” seams; otherwise, your end result will be a mask that is too small! (For example, a three-pleat style mask with 6”x9” rectangular pattern pieces should be approximately 8.5” wide by 2.5” to 2.75” when finished.)

Fabric and Materials

Follow the link

You’ll get a kit! Just sew from the kits your Let’s Breathe team leader provides to you.

Using your own fabric?

• Use only NEW, 100% cotton fabric.

• Use lightweight, breathable fabric – our masks are two layers AND are designed to fit over an N95 mask – users need to breathe through 3 layers!

• Using flannel? Use only lightweight flannel and pair with a non-flannel layer to keep it cool.

Elastic widths – We’ve learned that ¼” elastic is best. If all you have available to you is 3/8” width, be sure to lengthen the width of your elastic strips from 7” to 8.” Make sure someone on your team has verified the proper length for elastic strips based on the width of available elastic and your mask model. “Test drive” your first mask to make sure you’re on the right track and that it won’t either slip off or fly off of someone’s head!

When your masks are finished

Wash in hot water and dry on high heat. With sanitized hands, transfer masks directly from the dryer to a Ziploc bag, to allow for hygienic transfer to your healthcare heroes.

Note on the outside of the bag the number of masks contained in it.

ALTERNATE DESIGN

If you are asked to provide a larger mask that completely covers an N95 masks, use this pattern:

• Link to PDF •

This check ensures that the masks have been made correctly according to your health care organization specifications.

After sanitizing hands, we spot check the masks that we pick up to ensure they are wearable and made to specs. The things we look for include:

• • • The style used is acceptable for your health care group’s requests.

    • Final mask dimensions are accurate (they don’t have to be exact, but should be fairly close to allow for a good fit).

    • If mask fabric wasn’t provided by your team, ensure it’s acceptable. (Example: If flannel, only one layer so it’s not too hot, should be non-stretch cotton.)

    • Ensure masks are not still wet from washing (avoid molding the bag!).

    • If not indicated in or on the bag, count the masks and write the total number on the outside. (Once delivered, the health care group can hand off bags to staff as needed. )

The person handing off to healthcare organizations is one hand-off away from healthcare heroes and the vulnerable whom they serve.

Preparation

Make sure you are sanitizing your hands before and after handling any deliveries. Clean and sanitize any vehicle or container you use for transport. Always engage in proper social distancing. Wear a mask!

Confirm drop-off requirements

• Confirm with your contact who will be receiving the masks (of course!) the date, location, and time of your drop-off.

• Provide your contact information in case delivery plans have to change.

• Ask whether there are any special instructions you need to follow.

TIP: When you can, get pictures of those who are receiving them – we may add them to our website! Share your pictures with your team leader.

We want to tell the whole story of the Let’s Breathe campaign, and so add your team’s donation numbers to help tell the big story.

We have a very simple form to use where you can share your mask delivery totals, which will automatically update the Let’s Breathe website. We also would love to get your pictures to share with visitors to the website, and you will want to share them with your donors.

Follow this link to our quick-share form

After each delivery, complete this form with the following information:

• The date of your mask delivery

• The name of the healthcare center that received your masks

• The type of healthcare center (choose from a drop-down menu)

• The state where you delivered the masks

• The number of masks delivered

That’s it!

Share photos

Send them to letsbreatheinfo@gmail.com with the subject line starting PHOTOS. We love all sorts of photos of volunteers in action – sewing, assembling kits, driving, delivering masks – especially pictures of healthcare heroes wearing your masks.

Send them in and we may post them to this site!