As COVID-19 swept across the nation, our company, like many others, was on the brink of collapse. Events were being canceled, our customers stopped shopping, product sales ceased, bills piled up and our cash reserves began to run dry. Facing imminent layoffs of our 17 staff and the unbearable costs of a prolonged shutdown, our company had mere weeks to continue operating.
We refused to shut down without a fight and sought to pioneer a new path, and a new product, one that would allow us to keep our commitments to our staff and their families, while also being of service in this time of crisis.
Thanks to the rapid innovation of our staff and a company-saving partnership with the AJL Foundation, whose mission is to invest in people, programs and movements that benefit Colorado’s youth and families, we were able to immediately retool our production facility in Denver from custom ties and apparel, and start preparing production for much needed masks for healthcare workers and the public.
Doing our part.
It is estimated that 80,000 disposable masks are used each day in Colorado alone as a result of COVID-19, causing great strain on PPE availability for healthcare workers. To alleviate the shortage of medical-grade disposable masks, we’ve partnered with the Colorado Hospital Association to create reusable cotton masks for healthcare workers who are not caring for COVID-19 patients, and for hospitals who could otherwise not afford purchasing masks.
Thanks to generous funding from the Colorado Health Foundation, we're working now to produce and supply at least 25,000 masks for hospitals in need across Colorado - at no cost to them. As a result, desperately needed medical-grade reusables are being used to protect those valiant healthcare professionals working directly with COVID-19 patients while reusable cloth face masks are used to provide basic protection and fill gaps elsewhere.
We are grateful to be working alongside thoughtful community foundations that recognized our company’s ability to contribute to help protect healthcare workers and the economic impact their contributions would have.
Yes, we are filling a vital need by making masks, but we are also making a positive economic impact at this incredibly difficult time for all of us. We were so far able to avoid layoffs and retain all 17 of our staff, we have hired three additional staff, and have created partnerships with other local sewing companies to help them stay operating and avoid layoffs themselves. Being able to also offer reusable face masks made in the USA to the public has enabled us to spread our impact as far as possible.
Supporting the communities that have supported us.
In our time of need, we asked how we may be of service to our community and our community answered. For each mask we source and make, the Colorado Hospital Association will be identifying hospitals in need throughout the state for them to then be distributed to. These communities spread across Colorado have been the same ones that have supported us for over 7 years, and we're grateful to be able to provide masks to them in their own time of need.
Now more than ever before, we mean it when we say, we are in this together.
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Kevin Gaertner
Author