FREE N95's: These masks belong on your faces!!

Hi! My name is Kirsten.

Let me tell you a story. Last week, I ran to the post offices with packages of N95s for friends in Montana, Virginia, and Australia. As usual, I was the only person masked. Then, a woman and her son came in wearing Aura masks. I immediately offered them free masks. They laughed, and said, "No, thanks, but do you want our free masks?"

She explained, a local FB Buy Nothing group saved "lots" of masks still in their boxes, that were left by a dumpster at a Senior Care Home. Unfortunately, this group has had these masks for months and could not find any takers. They were headed to the garbage soon, as they could no longer store them. Phone numbers were exchanged.

As she began gathering the boxes, it became clear there were a lot more than she had realized. Hence, the tweet I put out to see if I could find a "few" takers and move some of the masks at the very least. A "few" more than I expected responded. (Which was thrilling)

Now, 5 days later, here we are. Approx 20,000 masks in my garage. While I am in the process of moving.

I am willing to get these out to as many of you as possible. However, I cannot possibly afford shipment for this quantity.

Many of you that have DM'd me can't afford any shipping. It is crucial to me this is as accessible to ALL equally. Many have also responded they can afford to pay for shipment. I am uncomfortable mailing to only those who can pay shipping costs. This is not helping any of the people that can't afford to ship, forget high-quality masks.

This is where y'all come in. Let's get these masks to as many of you as possible. I will go in order as DM. Not everyone will get masks. There simply is not enough for all, and smaller packages are not feasible for me to do (moving, working full-time, etc). I cannot guarantee a donation=masks to you, but I guarantee it means masks out in our communities, and we all win in that scenario.

If I get the funds, I will keep going through the list until the masks are gone. If I don't get enough funds to cover individual packages, I will ship the large boxes to some of the Orgs that have been mentioned.

If the GFM does well, we will be able to make some international shipments also. If we have money left over (?!), I will publicly do a mutual aid Twitter thread with priority to our most vulnerable/marginalized communities and disperse the balance equally.

I am only one person, but this amazing response has made me feel like this is a group effort. I'm not feeling overwhelmed or alone- thanks to all of you. Let's save some lives together and get this done!!