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Page last updated on September 7, 2021 at 11:34 am

For more information, please contact

City: Fire Chief Jason Moore, moorja@bloomington.in.gov812.349.3891
 

Bloomington Mask Drive: Kelly Clark  and Nola Hartman, bloomingtonfabricmaskdrive@gmail.com, (812) 269-8778

 

Challenge:

The COVID 19 pandemic was taking hold in the US and there were a lot of dangerous misconceptions about mask-wearing as a means of preventing spread. When the CDC approved the use and effectiveness of cloth masks in mid April, the City of Bloomington found itself in great demand of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of severe shortages. Chief Moore of the Bloomington Fire Department (BFD) conducted research into how the City could obtain PPE quickly and in great quantities. He came across the Bloomington Mask Drive, founded in mid-March 2020 by Kelly Clark and Nola Hartman. Kelly Clark had been facing similar mask shortages for her physical therapy clinic, and in her professional opinion, had started to encounter a lot of strong opinions and medically incorrect information about masks as she worked to have fabric ones made. Through Nola, Kelly was introduced to Bloomington Quilters Guild, a group of 200+ experienced hobby sewists who had begun making fabric masks. Kelly  knew this group  would need assistance from a medical professional to get a process and design that was genuinely safe and to help them fend off the discouragement of those who had misconceptions about fabric masks. So, Kelly and Nola joined forces and founded the Bloomington Mask Drive (BMD).

The BMD was well underway in their operations and production when Chief Moore and other city officials set out looking for a group to work with as partners. One of the main components Moore and others wanted was a group that not only had a network of people to create the masks and a distribution system in place, but also procedures to assure the masks were made and distributed using clean, sanitary procedures. He was impressed with the BMD’s operations and advocated for the City to support this resident-driven effort and benefit everyone involved.
 

Idea:

Kelly and Nola designed an end-to-end process to get the masks made, sorted, cleaned and distributed. Before BFD backed their initiative, BMD was already well organized, albeit on a small scale. Moving the operation from Kelly’s office into a bigger facility and employing more volunteers to assist with the workload became a key focus in order to meet growing community needs. Becky Barrick in Parks & Recreation was essential in providing signage and arranging for a City facility BMD could use. The group was initially moved to the Jukebox Community Center until that facility was used for childcare at which time they relocated to the Banneker Community Center. At each location, BMD, with the initial assistance of Fire personnel, set up a clean room, a transition room, a dirty room, and laundry service, eliminating cross-contamination. 

Kelly Clark, BMD Co-Founder, at work.
Kelly Clark, BMD Co-Founder, at work.

At the peak of production in late April, Bloomington’s Community and Family Resource Department helped with call lists to let community members know when their mask requests were ready for pickup. BFD was able to assist BMD by streamlining operations. Before their workflow was optimized, BMD was able to produce up to 300 masks/day. Modifications recommended by BFD enabled the BMD to increase output to 1,000 masks/day! The City continued to be an active partner in BMD operations through June when PPE supply through traditional channels improved. 

BMD continued to evolve its processes and distribution through the summer of 2020. In mid July -after many experiments- BMD unveiled the “community mask station”. The addition of mask stations primarily makes things much easier for BMD volunteers, because they just have to focus on getting the masks ready for use and packaged. This program uses a decentralized mask distribution method across eight different stations in Bloomington rather than a single pickup point like before. At each mask station, residents can pick a free mask, varying in design and materials. BMD is currently situated in the City of Bloomington Parks Department and Area 10 Agency on Aging’s College Mall location where their work continues to make a tremendous impact in the Bloomington community. To learn more about what BMD is doing today, or how you can volunteer, please visit https://www.bloomingtonmaskdrive.com/

Nola Hartman, BMD Co-Founder, distributing masks.
Nola Hartman, BMD Co-Founder, distributing masks. 

 

Cost:

Contribution by the City of Bloomington is estimated at less than $400. Parks contributed signage and space in which to operate. The City space BMD used would have been vacant anyway due to COVID restrictions, so there was no cost associated with keeping the building open that would not have otherwise been incurred. BFD provided clean storage and sanitizing supplies early on when they were difficult  to obtain. By Kelly and Nola’s estimates, the overall mask drive has raised and spent around $30,000 to make over 36,000 masks. It takes around 80 volunteer hours a week at this point to maintain their operations; early on it was much more time consuming, probably closer to 300 volunteer hours a week. 

 

Benefit:

For City employees, BMD was critical to providing protective masks at a time when masks were scarce. Approximately 1,800 masks were supplied to City employees in all departments, as well as employees of the Bloomington Housing Authority and Bloomington Transit. For a full list of organizations that received masks as part of this project see  https://www.bloomingtonmaskdrive.com/mask-recipients/

The impact of providing free masks early in the pandemic is difficult to quantify, but Nola and Kelly believe “our value has been as much in building community and instilling a spirit of resilience and usefulness for our volunteers…” as it has been in developing a sustainable mask drive. The City’s partnership with BMD provides an example of a new way of innovating: by partnering with an existing group or organization to remove barriers like location issues, while contributing skills like operational efficiency and logistics honed by City entities like the Fire Department. By supporting resident-driven efforts in this way, the City introduced a new model for problem-solving especially in a time of crisis.

 

Metadata

City Department(s): Bloomington Fire Department, Office of the Mayor, Community and Family Resources, Parks and Recreation

City Point of Contact: Fire Chief Jason Moore

Major Partner: Bloomington Mask Drive

Major Partner Points of Contact: Kelly Clark and Nola Hartman, BMD Co-Founders

BMD Partners: Patient PT and Bloomington Quilters Guild (Kelly Clark & Nola Hartman are affiliated with these) are the key partner entities. BMD is also partnered with Area 10 Agency on Aging, who hosts volunteer activities at Endwright, and partners hosting stations include Comfort Keepers, Wheeler Mission, the Monroe County Public Library, South Central Community Action Program, Hopscotch Coffee, and IU Luddy School of Informatics. United Way of Monroe County acts as a fiscal agent to accept tax-deductible donations, and in early months collected most donated funds.

Type of Innovation: Brand New Service

Date Implemented: March/April 2020