We are providing face masks, all donated, to the following groups:
First, health care providers on the front lines are our top priority. This is why we organized. These people are our heroes and at highest risk. Since then, many other groups have come under directives to wear face masks and our mission expanded. However, front line health care providers remain our first priority.
Second, we are making masks for first responders such as police, firefighters, and paramedics; front line charitable volunteers; and some other critical workers. We have made masks for staff at nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where they did not usually need to wear masks previously.
Third, we have made masks for extremely vulnerable patients, at the request of their doctors, such as for pediatric cancer patients to wear while receiving chemotherapy, when that provider is unable to provide medical masks for these kids.
Fourth, we have provided masks to other groups who often had donated their medical grade PPE to front line health care workers. Veterinarians and dentists, who closed or limited their practices, have in some cases donated their office medical supplies and needed something to wear.
Because of the huge demand, we have had to adopt policies, which are applied uniformly:
Our main policy is that masks are donated only to facilities that EXPLICITLY confirm to us that the masks are okay for staff to have. If a facility prohibits the use of cloth masks as an emergency measure, we will skip that facility and move onto the next one who will permit their use. We simply cannot afford to provide masks to facilities if there is any risk of the masks being thrown away or banned. There are simply too many facilities who have asked to have extra reusable cloth masks.
Requests are filled in the order that requests are received. If you work at a facility in Virginia, Maryland, or Washington, DC, and you would like to receive extra facemasks made locally, please fill out the mask request form here. We are currently working through remaining requests for more than 25,000 masks.
We are prioritizing regional requests, and if and when those are fulfilled, we would switch to filling requests from other states.