Lopez dispensers provide free face masks to all

Project makes news in North Carolina

— from WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio —

Chom Greacen created the Grab-and-Go Mask dispenser to help encourage her fellow residents on Lopez Island, Wash., to mask up. Volunteers sew the masks inside.

For residents of 15-mile-long Lopez Island, which sits off the coast of Washington, finding a face mask is pretty easy. Thanks to Chom Greacen, 29, mask dispensers are scattered throughout the island. People can pull a free cloth mask from a dispenser whenever they need one.

Greacen normally conducts energy research in Thailand, but due to travel restrictions, she hasn’t been able to continue her work. So she’s been devoting her spare time to getting masks to the more than 2,000 islanders.

“Back in March and April, masks [of all types] were difficult to come by or they were expensive,” Greacen says. While the islanders mobilized to get N95 masks donated to their EMTs and health care workers, she realized that everyone else would need a mask, too.Greacen holds up one of the mask dispensers that she designed. They are made of recycled campaign signs.QUANIQUA WILLIAMS

In March, Greacen came up with her DIY project, Grab-and-Go Masks. “I thought of the little sanitary product vending machines that are in public bathrooms,” Greacen says. She made a prototype of a hanging rectangular box using leftover campaign signs from her husband’s run for the school board. The durable, plastic material would protect the masks within.

The masks are also DIY, made using blue disposable shop towels made of polypropylene — they’re heavy duty paper towels typically used for cleaning up grease, oils and spills in automotive repair shops. The recommendation for the material came from Dr. Peter Tsai, the inventor of the N95 respirator.

To date, 40 volunteers have helped make some 6,000 masks using kits — complete with directions and supplies — provided by Greacen. Volunteers also help restock the dispensers.

Greacen has not spent a cent on the project. Shop towels for the masks are donated by the Islands Marine Center (IMC), a local marina and boat dealership, which has two of Greacen’s dispensers on its property.

“It was great that Chom sprung into action [at the start of the pandemic] because there was no way to get masks whatsoever,” Tim Slattery, general manager of the IMC, wrote in an email to NPR. “We work in an essential business that was still up and running, so having masks available was a must.”

Today, dispensers can be found all over the island, indoors and outdoors. They’re in high-traffic areas such as grocery stores, a bakery, the fudge shop, the ferry dock and the farmer’s market. Some hang on the front doors of businesses for customers to grab as they enter.

Greacen plans to keep the project going as long as masks are needed.

Lopez Island has only had three cases of the coronavirus to date, according to the San Juan County Health Department. Dr. Robert Wilson, the island physician who treated and diagnosed the three cases, says Greacen’s promotion of mask usage and making them available to the public has been great.

“[Lopez Island] is your typical small town,” Wilson says. “People here are more connected and more likely to get involved. They’re interested in keeping each other safe.”