Crown and Birch furniture store owner Céline Wood was joined by Thunder Bay Police Service Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes for a special donation of protective face masks for the Shelter House Thursday afternoon.
Wood has been offering donations of the cotton, washable and reusable masks to local organizations in need of protective personal equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. She approached the Thunder Bay Police Service earlier this week to offer such a donation.
“The masks were made by volunteer sewers throughout Thunder Bay,” Wood said. “In mid-March we heard there was increasing need for PPE in our city, so Crown and Birch rallied close to 100 volunteers to help cut, sew, assemble and deliver masks to front-line workers throughout our community.”
The needs and challenges of front-line policing meant the reusable masks might not be the best fit for the service, however, after some discussion it was decided there are organizations that could greatly benefit from such PPE supplies.
“We thought these masks could go to the Shelter House to help ensure this community’s most vulnerable, along with Shelter House staff, have an opportunity to be protected from the pandemic,” said Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes.
Representatives from the three agencies met in front of the Shelter House Thursday afternoon, while carefully respecting physical distancing best practices, to complete the donation of 100 cloth masks.
As of this week, the Crown and Birch have donated more than 1,100 masks. Those numbers are expected to rise as the 100-plus volunteers continue to complete more.
Fabric and materials were purchased by Crown and Birch, while the volunteers assembled the finished products. To learn more about the mask donations, or to make a personal donation to the initiative, visit online at www.crownandbirch.com. Click on the “masks” page.