People are scrambling to find masks now that the CDC is advising everyone to cover their faces when they go outside.
Las Vegas-based R&R Partners has created the website, HeroesWearMasks.us, to teach people how to make their own from t-shirts they have lying around, leaving available surgical-grade masks to the professionals.
The project evolved from R&R providing employees who are working from home with t-shirts bearing the unifying #weRRfamily rallying cry. The backs of t-shirts featured a template for employees to cut out their own face masks.
"This initiative was originally designed to protect our employees when leaving their homes for essential goods, but grew into a much larger movement to slow the spread of this devastating virus by encouraging anyone with a T-shirt in their closet to make their own face covering," said Pete Ernaut, chief government relations officer for R&R Partners, in a statement.
The HeroesWearMasks website includes a printable template and detailed instructions for mask-making. It also includes advice on the proper use of T-shirt masks, such as washing one’s hands before putting it on and laundering the mask itself after each use.
Links to the CDC for general COVID-19 health tips and sites for the tech crowd to make their own 3-D printed or injection-molded masks are included.
R&R marketers are hoping to start a movement by encouraging people to post photos of themselves in their cloth masks on social media, using the #HeroesWearMasks hashtag.
"Wearing a face covering is a small, but incredibly important act of heroism to help flatten the curve," stated Brian Hoar, chief marketing officer for R&R Partners. "This is more than a campaign, this is a movement, this is a national call to arms to help save lives."