Supplier Redwood Classics (PPAI 696020) in Toronto, Ontario, has donated thousands of masks to hospitals and charities. It is also selling ready-made and DIY mask kits to the public and with each mask purchased, it is donating a mask to those working on the frontlines—those in the health-care community, caretakers, grocery store employees, restaurant workers, truck-drivers, delivery people and essential service providers.

"It’s a privilege to give back to the city and country that has given our family business so much," says Kathy Cheng, president and founder of Redwood Classics. "In a world where we celebrate technology, and how quickly that technology can be adapted, our silver lining is the ability to transform our factory into a mask-production house until regular factory activities can resume."

Since the mid-March, Redwood Classics and its volunteer skeleton crew of craftspeople and support staff have produced and donated thousands of masks to local health-care facilities and organizations, including Michael Garron Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Chai Lifeline Canada and Moose Cree First Nation, with many more donations being prepared for other partners in the coming weeks and months. The response has been so great that the Redwood Classics team has added a donation request portal to its website.

For each Redwood Classics ready-to-wear mask pack and ready-to-assemble DIY mask kits sold, Redwood Classics will donate the equivalent to its donation partners. The mask packs and DIY kits enable others to give or make masks for their loved ones, friends and vulnerable citizens. That's why Redwood Classics is issuing the #MadeForGoodChallenge, encouraging those who make and donate masks to share their stories on social media.

"We've seen an outpouring of support from Canadians who want to know how they, too, can help our frontline heroes," says Cheng. "By launching the #MadeForGoodChallenge, we hope to empower everyone from the casual home sewer to our fellow members of the manufacturing and apparel industries to get involved, give back and do what they can from where they are."

She adds, “We are so grateful to artist Katrina Schaman and video creator Burman Lam of B Productions Inc. They have generously donated their creative skills to help bring this project to life.”

Redwood Classics reports that the DIY mask kits, in particular, have proven to be a scalable way of ensuring more people in the community can have access to masks, with donations of mask materials made to multiple groups of home sewers. Cheng says, “While the Redwood Classics volunteer team races against time to produce as many masks as possible, it is heartening to know that so many home sewers are working right there alongside us to get masks out to our vulnerable populations.”

Pre-made masks come in a set of three for CA$36, and can be ordered online through the Redwood Classics website. DIY mask kits contain a pattern and the materials required to make 10 masks for a cost of CA$20. They can be ordered online through the Redwood Classics website.

"There is no better time than now to be proudly Canadian," says Cheng. "Our country needs us and we need our country. Together, we will get through this."