Creative Action Network is excited to announce our new face mask collection that gives free masks to frontline workers! For every mask we sell, we donate a mask to a essential worker who needs one. We've already distributed 5,000 free masks since July and we're so grateful to everyone who helped us get this project off the ground. A huge thank you to Coworker.org for getting our masks out into the world and to Economic Security Project for their generous support. Thanks to all the artists who contributed designs to this project and for always being so enthusiastic about our art campaigns. And thanks to you, our customers, for helping us get more masks into the hands of essential workers who need them! Our mask collection is growing fast and we thought you'd enjoy the story of how it all started. Thanks so much for reading and as always, thanks for wearing a mask! ~Team CAN
In March 2020, we reached out to our artist community with an urgent call for mask art in support of workers as the pandemic grew. We were happily overwhelmed with great designs from artists who wanted to lend a hand! Then we started hustling to bring the masks to market and and to get them into our shop, which was extra challenging because we were doing it in the middle of a global pandemic. We recognized the need to get free masks into the hands of workers across the US, and we wanted to try a buy one, give one program, so we kept on working to make it happen. This summer, we hit the ground running with our first batch of masks!
We started selling masks in July and they've been a hit so far. Our goal when we launched was to get as many free masks into the hands of essential workers as we could, as quickly as we could. We're proud that we've donated 5,000 masks to people who need them already, and it's exciting that photos of our masks being worn out in the streets are bubbling up from Coworker.org partners and on social media. In a world where we'll all be wearing masks for the near future, we're glad to be helping out!
Our partnership with Coworker.org is how we're getting free masks from our mask collection into the hands of essential workers. Coworker.org is a group of dedicated organizers working to shift power into the hands of working people all across our country, and through their network of organizations that support workers we've given masks to Freedom To Thrive, We Dream In Black, Healthcare Professionals & Allied Employees Union Local 5058 and many more worker causes. Thanks to Mrs. Elaine, a childcare professional who has barely stopped working during the pandemic, her coworker and North Carolina Central University cafeteria worker from Durham, NC for sending us photos in their CAN masks!
Coworker.org also put us in touch with Shanise Renee, a campaign organizer in Durham, NC who shared a cute selfie wearing a free mask with her son. Shanise is wearing our most popular individual mask, We Can Do It Vote! by David Hays, and we're now offering variety packs of five and ten masks like the Workers Rights variety 10-pack too. In addition to helping essential workers like Shanise, sales of our mask collection also support the independent artists who designed them, and we're receiving new design submissions all the time. Look for our second and third batches of new masks this coming this fall!
Speaking of artists, we also want to acknowledge the artists who contributed their mask designs to our campaign. It really has been wonderful to see the creative community rally during the pandemic by raising artist voices and talents to help make things just a little better for all of us. Thank you to Rocky Casillas (pictured above), Roberlan Borges, Amy Smith, David Hays and Susanne Lamb for being a part of our first ever face mask campaign! ~Team CAN
