Pictured: Jimmy Breslin, HSI Community Development Officer, delivering more than 1,100 face coverings to the Boys and Girls Club.
Many fantastic people in our community are making masks and face coverings but at iCelerate – High Sierra Industries (HSI) we know there are some populations that can fall through the gap, especially during times of a crisis. And what if you don’t have access to, or can’t afford fabric, or have sewing skills?
Although HSI’s day service facility operations are closed, the iWork job training and employment program is operating. The iWork division is an essential business because it supplies assemblies to other essential business in our area. While practicing safe workplace protocols, in addition to our contract work, HSI also found a way to give back and help our community, most importantly, to those families who are often overlooked when it comes to accessing vital resources.
Custom Ink generously donated several hundred poly-cotton blend t-shirts. We found that the Center for Disease Control suggests the blend is a better barrier than other fabrics if you don’t have access to an actual mask. From the t-shirts we made more than 1,100 washable and reusable face coverings, that can be customized to different size and require no sewing. These face coverings were delivered to the Boys and Girls Club of Truckee Meadows. They will hand them out — with English and Spanish instructions for cutting slits that fit over the ears, on Thursday as part of their weekly Food Pantry distribution with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.
“People with disabilities are just like you and me and with our heightened abilities to evaluate situations through a lens of equity and inclusion, we’re able to quickly identify a need or deficiencies in processes. It’s what we do every day in our learning systems that help people with disabilities. We identified a need in our community and put our assembly skills to the test to produce more than 1,100 washable face coverings for families.” says LaVonne Brooks, CEO iCelerate – High Sierra Industries. “We are so thankful for the quick response by Custom Ink to deliver us hundreds of t-shirts at a moment’s notice to put the l’s face covering design into production.”
The face coverings are now available through the Boys and Girls Club of Truckee Meadows and are distributed through their Food Pantry project in conjunction with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. Learn more at: https://bgctm.org/covid19-programming/.
Instructions included in each package on how to properly fit the face covering, in English and Spanish, based on CDC’s guidelines.
