#healthingheroes: saving lives, one mask at a time

tonya dickenson is recruiting an army of volunteers to fight covid-19. armed with household cotton fabrics and scissors, she’s working with hundreds of local sewers across the country to create diy masks for canadians who may not have acces to — or the means to make — face masks for protection when they go out in public.“how much is a life worth? put a dollar value on it — it’s impossible,” says dickenson. “i think it’s invaluable.”dickenson is the marketing and strategic planner director, as well as canadian lead for army of masks, a grassroots virtual community of volunteers sewing and sending face masks to meet the urgent need in north america. from montreal, dickenson works with a core team of people to connect local sewers with people in their communities who need masks.dickenson got involved with army of masks after her friend mireille bani, the founder and operations director of the movement, asked her to help mobilize volunteers in canada to sew masks. florida-based bani asked her to come on board two days after she started the movement on march 20, having had over 130 requests for masks from facebook group members.when bani asked her for help, dickenson quickly realized that tools and strategies were needed to scale the movement to all of north america. and it had to be fast, all while in a lockdown.“i called her up and i said, ‘how are you doing this distribution and matching?’ she showed me her notebook with addresses and phone numbers of people and how many [masks] they needed,” says dickenson. “i just looked at that like, ‘oh my god, you can’t distribute 350 million masks using a notebook!’”having over 20 years of work in the pharmaceutical industry under her belt working in product management, sales and marketing intelligence, dickenson had a multitude of contacts she knew she could reach out to help optimize scale, and develop strategies. believing that an app would be the best way to coordinate local sewers and mask demand, she called up a friend in toronto, looking for someone who could bring her vision to life.the friend, sho conte, a phd student at the university of toronto, offered to do it and after going back and forth repeatedly, the pair launched the app within six days — a feat considering app development usually takes months. a day later, the website was live (developed in four days), with social media campaigns beginning not even a week later.dickenson says she spends about 18 to 20 hours each day coordinating efforts as part of a core team of five members working around the world. together, she says that they are all working hard to make a difference.“it’s a team,” she says. and when not coordinating the efforts of others, dickenson distributes masks with her husband, a retired senior finance executive, and her children.the numbers of volunteers, masks to be made and people in need are updated daily on the website. on april 23, the team had 128 volunteer mask makers, needed 4728 masks, and had 268 requests from people in need. to date, they have made over 9,200 for people across north america.people and organizations can apply for masks through armyofmasks.com. the organization also has an app, where people requesting masks get matched with local mask makers who coordinate the delivery through geolocation. “we’re trying to make this whole system self-sufficient, and community-based,” she says.

dr. roberta bondar is on board

as word has spread, dickenson has had a canadian pioneer also lend their support to army of masks. on the 50th anniversary of earth day, dr. roberta bondar, the first canadian woman and the world’s first neurologist in space, gave an emotional plea to canadians to stay home and wear a mask when they go out. “i’m not asking for the moon, i’m asking you to stay home, keep calm, and even make a mask or two. that would be one small step for mankind, and one giant leap for earth,” bondar said in a youtube video posted on army of masks’ website.“it was beyond my wildest dreams,” says dickenson of having bondar’s support.while the support from bondar, community members, ohea and a local private school companies has been fantastic, dickenson says that right now, what they need most is help to make masks. volunteer mask makers are at the center of the movement, and she stresses they are the ones who deserve credit for driving mask supply to the community.part of the reason behind the shortage in this protective equipment is that people don’t realize how easy it is to make masks, or how widely available the materials that can be used are in people’s homes. common household cotton fabrics like dish towels, and pillow cases can be used to be made into a mask — you don’t need a sewing kit or machine.“anybody basically who can cut with scissors can do it. young, old, any age, any gender can do it,” she says.volunteers can apply to be mask makers either individually or part of a group though the website, helping to make and distribute the masks to people and organizations in the community who desperately need the protective equipment.for dickenson, it’s important to get masks into our communities — especially to those in essential services helping the homeless and those with disabilities — so they can protect themselves, and others. as long as the pandemic continues, she says she will continue working, sewing and rallying supporters to continue saving lives.“is it worthwhile? definitely,” says dickenson. “do i need to keep on working? yes, because every second i work, i’m helping to protect lives.”