Bergen Mask Task Force

Bergen Mask Task Force, founded by Clori Caminiti Osso, Christine Beidel, Janet Hughes, Vicky Green and Victoria Pero is a response to the urgent need for Personal Protective Equipment for our medical workers. Medical professionals were wearing the N95 mask for upwards of a week and sterilizing their one mask in the oven at night. BMTF sprang into action developing and making a cotton mask designed to cover the N95 in order to act a washable barrier that would help extend the life of the N95. Quickly pivoting from their work in the Theatre Department at Bergen County Academies on March 19th, 2020, overnight, to creating an organization that has made over 12,000 masks, working with nearly 400 local volunteers serving over 60 hospitals, police departments, fire departments, doctor's offices, retirement homes, convents, transit workers and rehabilitation centers. 

The team works from 5:30 in the morning until collapsing at 11 at night, sending the last few texts, and posts with updates from frontline workers asking for more masks. Nimble and responsive; constantly innovating newer and better designs to help the workers feel safer and more comfortable, the team has expanded to include an additional 20 women innovating technical sewing and design, which is then communicated, through Facebook, to our hundreds of volunteers. One of the biggest issues is the intense pain medical workers feel behind their ears from multiple mask elastics during 12-hour shifts. BMTF works with 7 separate teams to 3D print a small piece of plastic that goes behind the head to pull the elastic off the ear and completely alleviate what has been described as "excruciating pain". 

Until now, BMTF has financed this volunteer effort two ways: our Parents and Patrons of the Arts organization at BCA paid for initial materials and postal deliveries to the NYC hospitals, and we go online, all day long, begging for donations of goods. The heartwarming news is that the community has stepped up, sending us wire, fabric, elastic, buttons and sewing machines. The materials we need are humble and the sums are fairly modest but it is time consuming, inefficient and worrisome when we desperately need the items critical to producing our products and must rely on material donations only. Financial donations will give us the ability to order precisely improving our ability to respond quickly:  Police Force blue fabric, Transit Worker black fabric, more headbands for the nurses, softer elastic and smaller sizes for children in pediatric and cancer wards. 

Thank you SO much for helping us help them. Stay safe!

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