DES MOINES, Iowa — Masks for Iowa started as a Facebook group, Masks for the Frontlines Iowa, a few weeks back with the mission of providing masks to those who need them during the COVID-19 pandemic. It quickly gained traction, and now has its own website.
They've produced about 6,000 masks in the last week alone, with the number growing from 9,000 to 15,000 masks overall since Friday of last week. Their rapid growth made them run into a problem though: they kept running out of fabric.
"The big, big thing is that so far, everybody has been fine finding their own fabric and making masks with their own fabric to donate, but people are starting to run out," Masks for Iowa's Shelly Weeks said.
With no easy way to obtain it through Facebook, they decided to kick it up a notch by creating their own website.
Their website allows people to purchase fabrics from 25 stores around the state that will be shipped directly to the mask-makers. So the fabric gets where it needs to go, and businesses get a boost too.
"You can buy 10 yards of fabric, which would make, like, 70 Olsen masks or 80 pleated masks," Weeks said. "They'll just set it aside, so anyone that's signed up to deliver masks can go pick some up."
So now, everyone can pitch in in one way or another.
If you'd like to volunteer to do deliveries for Masks for Iowa, you can fill out a form here.