Homemade Face Masks LA is a group on Facebook founded by a Croatian fashion designer Katarina Dzale and teamed up with Raseljka Maras, her business partner, and best friend. The two of them have a fashion-tech company based in Los Angeles and at the time of the crisis, they were both in LA for business meetings with investors for their company.
At the time the Coronavirus crisis hit the USA, they were about to return to Croatia but they decided to stay and help the local community in Los Angeles. Coming from a different, European heritage with years spent in war on the Balcans, they couldn't just sit and wait for things to calm down. Spending her teenage days in Bosnia during the war in 90's, Katarina learned how to survive the crisis and bring an add value to the community when the times are worse.
The first idea of the Homemade Face Masks LA was to provide medical workers with fabric made face masks and gather a lot of volunteers who would make them and deliver them to the hospitals. After just one day, the community started evolving and offering their help and support.
After only few days, the whole organization has settled down and Katarina and Raseljka are coordinating 8 teams in the whole LA county from the Valley to Long Beach and far East LA. Around 300 volunteer seamstresses, members of the community that are not professionals but people who want to help and be part of the solution, are sewing close to 1.000 masks per day. These are distributed to various LA hospitals.
Today, this team is run by Katarina and Raseljka and has team leaders in eight areas of LA County.
CristinaWEST SIDE LA - Katarina Dzale & Raseljka Maras SAN FERNANDO VALLEY - Ines Wurth SOUTH BAY - Lauren Cotner LONG BEACH - Emma Stone INLAND EMPIRE - Ruthta Pichakron TEMECULA AREA - Candi Miranda PASADENA/ALHAMBRA/EAST LA - Candice Wong ANTELOPE VALLEY - Crisstina McCaslin
A big thank you to my friend Caren Rich who is helping with all the logistics of this incredible endeavor!
For more info connect with them through FB.