July 16, 2020, Oakland, Calif. - Even when Bryn Walker, a Berkeley clothing manufacturing company of 28 years, faced the shutdown orders in March, co-owner and founder Bryan Walker looked to turn this problem into an opportunity. “I wanted to find a way to keep my employees working and fill a need in the community during these unprecedented times,” expressed Walker. He turned to his friend, Shelly Wong, an Alameda entrepreneur and founder of It Takes a Village, a volunteer grassroots community effort that had begun making face masks and face shields for Bay Area hospitals.

Wong founded It Takes a Village after she watched a CNN story about a couple using 3D printers to make face shields in New York. She turned to her husband, Alex Chan, a former robotics coach, and friend Tim Poisez, an industrial designer, and wondered if they could do the same.  They put their heads together and came up with a shield that could be made with parts readily available. “You could make it inexpensively and at home,” Wong added. 

After a flurry of outreach and fortunate series of events, Walker received a donation of a one ton roll of special, thin plastic from CocaCola. However, the sheer volume and material nature of the plastic required a specific laser cutter to do the work. More phone calls led them to Oakland fabricator, Atticus Wolf, and his industrial art workshop, m0xy. And with that, the rest was history. This series of connections is one example of how many Bay Area entrepreneurs have turned their energies towards social needs while “business as usual” has slowed down.

Walker donated fabric, elastic, wire and thread for face masks, and the group expanded into a four-county village of seamstresses, cutters, washers, and drivers. Co-founders Bryan Walker and Michelle Walker have been crucial in supporting It Takes A Village-Bay Area, helping the effort scale into an operation that has made and donated more than 18,600 cloth masks to hospitals as well as 6,400 KN95 masks. The group now has 225 volunteers. Walker was moved by the notion that in WWII, Berkeley and the East Bay had converted itself into a manufacturing hub for the war effort. The parallels of the urgency to make supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic struck him. "Bryn Walker has been designing clothes in the Bay Area for women who shape and help make our community more vibrant,” Walker said. “It is a natural transition for us to harness and repurpose our resources, facilities and production team to produce the much needed protection for the healthcare professionals in our community battling COVID-19."

Wong noted, “When we first started, fabric face masks and face shields were our two-pronged approach to provide the best PPE with our resources. We started in separate avenues. Bryan knew more about fabric and sewing, Alex and I knew more about the face shields. But in our several month's journey, that has blended significantly.”  

As demand grew, the need for a 501(c)3 organization to manage donations became apparent. Walker reached out to Barbara Morrison, Founder and CEO of TMC Financing and TMC Community Capital. Morrison’s history of working with and supporting small businesses made her an easy choice for the partnership. “Right away, I knew we wanted to partner with this effort. It was inspiring to see businesses helping, despite their own hardships,” shared Morrison. “I have spent my life serving and advocating for small businesses because of the critical role they play in our community,” Morrison explained.

With the one ton roll of plastic, the entrepreneurs are now ramping up their face shield efforts, using a new 100% plastic design, that was prototyped by the fabricators at mOxy and collaboratively revised by Chan. The workshop is also pitching in the cutting. “Our partners are generously cutting for reduced rates and we have a GoFundMe campaign to help cover costs,” Wong explained. All donations are tax deductible through the partnership with TMC Community Capital, a nonprofit micro-lender that provides fast and affordable online financing, fosters financial stability, and encourage entrepreneurship among women-owned, low-income and under-resourced small businesses in California. “TMC Community Capital has been working hard to help small businesses through this crisis by providing access to quick capital, access to PPP Loans, and other resources. It was only natural that we help business owners keep their employees working by supporting this noble effort,” stated Morrison.

To date, It Takes a Village has donated 80,430 face masks and 42,336 face shields, and demand continues. Wong reflected that even while many small fabricator shops have refocused to make face shields, and although people think California is flattening the curve, the hospitals remain in desperate need of these supplies. “They use hundreds a day, but there are only so many being made by makers such as ourselves. Hospitals can't estimate a quantity because their needs are so high. And this will be true for a while. We may get out of shelter-in-place, but the hospitals will likely have the same level of patients as now.” They have exceeded their goal of donating 50,000 masks and 20,000 face shields to institutions fighting COVID-19, having delivered 80,430 masks and 42,336 face shields to institutions across the Bay. Currently, the list of medical institutions that have requested PPE include:

• Alameda Health System (Highland, Fairmont, San Leandro, Alameda) public

• Zuckerberg San Francisco General public

• Laguna Honda Hospital public

• UCSF public

• Child Protective Services - SF

• Santa Clara Valley Medical Center public

• Chinese Hospital San Francisco

• Mission Neighborhood Health Center - SF - public

• Palo Alto - VA public

• Martinez - VA public

• New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell

• NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst public

• Navajo Nation - New Mexico

For more information, visit www.it-takes-a-village.org or email Shelly Wong at wong.shelly1@gmail.com.