BY BETH DEDMAN
Trilogía, a natural wellness brand, launched the Masks for Good campaign to help provide KN95 masks to hospitals in New York City fighting the COVID-19 crisis.
Cal Chan and Michael Lebhar, business partners of Trilogía, have backgrounds in selling products on Amazon, which connected them to a manufacturer of face masks.
“We thought ‘what if we bought these masks and provided them to the hospitals?’” Chan said. “Because of the mass distribution network, these masks don’t go where they need to. So we thought we would buy them, and make sure they got where they needed to go.”
Within the first 10 days of the campaign, Trilogía raised $40,000 and was able to use half of it to donate 10,000 masks to the Seattle area. The next 10,000 masks are en route to hospitals across the country, including the NYU Medical Center.
“We are all in this together,” Chan said. “All it takes is to donate $5 or 10 dollars. Our medical professionals are being asked to reuse these masks for weeks, which they are not built for. They’re designed to last half a day. The money that you are saving by not going to Starbucks, you could protect someone who is taking care of your mother or uncle and that’s pretty cool. You can stand up and do something. As Americans we can get together and solve this thing. The hardest part is getting people to realize they can help.”
More information about the campaign is available on Trilogía’s website and at www.gofundme.com/masks-for-good. Donations should include information about where the sender is located so that Trilogía can send the masks to their location.
“This small startup is eight people who are trying to do what we can to give back to the community,” Chan said. “It shows that anyone can do it. We are in the health and wellness business selling tinctures and sprays. When we come together collectively, we could actually help people.”
