IF YOU CAN SEW, YOU CAN SERVE. ANSWER THE CALL OF DUTY.

VOLUNTEERS who know how to sew can make a significant difference within their communities. The Army of Masks is actively and urgently recruiting mask makers all over North America.The Army of Masks is a grassroots virtual community of volunteers sewing and donating DIY fabric masks to meet the urgent needs within local healthcare facilities. The initiative was launched in Winter Garden, Florida on March 20, 2020 by local resident Mireille Bani. Within a week and with the help of a handful of friends based in Canada and the Middle East, Army of Masks launched an informative website and a custom-made application using geolocation to help match demands emanating from healthcare facilities with volunteer mask makers ready to help. The group has over 800 members in North America with 134 members in the Florida chapter alone. With zero marketing, the non-profit community initiative website had 3,003 visitors and 8,715 pages views in 6 days. As of today, close to 2,500 masks have already been made and delivered, mainly to Central Florida's nursing homes, hospices, mobile dialysis care teams and the Orange County Court, among many others. Since the CDC new guidelines came out last week, requests have been streaming in constantly: over 4,000 masks are currently needed in the app. Army of Masks was approached yesterday by one of Orlando's major healthcare groups, the Delaware State Troopers, as well as an organization managing hospice care facilities throughout Florida and nationwide. They alone need several thousand masks urgently. All indicators point to a sharp increase in demand during such dire times. Mireille Bani, 53, Founder & Operations Director, said: "From the beginning, we clearly knew that a washable fabric face mask is not replacing an N95 or surgical mask, as explained in our disclaimer, but we also suspected that healthcare workers would soon run out of masks like in Europe. We believe that a fabric mask is better than nothing and we are in this all together. We are in war against a virus and we all need to step up to help the ones on the front lines: we need vo-lunteers able to sew, deliver, coordinate, collect fabric donations. Join us, we could maybe save lives."Crystal L., a healthcare worker, messaged the group: "I received my three requested masks in the mail today! I broke down in tears. A small token that may save a life. Thank you

Army of Masks HQ
Winter Garden, FL 34787
407-900-6727
thearmyofmasks@gmail.com
www.armyofmasks.com

Army of Masks is a grassroots virtual community making DIY cotton masks to help fill the current gap and meet the urgent need. Information on how to register as a mask maker can be found on the Army of Masks Facebook Group.

This release was published on openPR.