Town of Wescott warrior rallies volunteers

GREEN BAY — Saving lives, one mask at a time.

That’s how Liz Benecke describes the operation of the Wisconsin Face Mask Warriors — Zone 4.

Benecke, a nurse, lives in the town of Wescott and works in Green Bay. Recently, when she is not working a nursing shift, Benecke has been spending her time at a little strip mall on Green Bay’s Velp Avenue, coordinating the distribution of thousands of medical-grade masks to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Under her direction, the Zone 4 operation has sent out more than 258,148 free homemade masks to individuals and businesses in an 11-county area — at least, that was the number as of Tuesday. The operation is a community effort that combines the purposeful drive of a military campaign, the coordination of a perfect NFL play, the logistics of Amazon at Christmas and the dedication of hundreds of people wanting to help others.

There are mask-makers in 11 counties, 33 drivers, 1,000 volunteers sewing, countless donations, dozens of take-out tacos and delivery pizzas, 16-hour days and 4:30 a.m. start times.

The project started when some of Benecke’s friends, who are also nurses, asked for help in getting personal protective equipment, or PPE, for work. Benecke got in touch with the Face Mask Warriors, a nationwide group that makes and distributes free cotton masks to support “the most vulnerable and least supported essential workers” from COVID-19, according to the group’s Facebook page.

Benecke did a shout out of her own on Facebook, and the local project rapidly exploded.

As the COVID-19 virus began to spread, she thought that distributing masks would be one way to continue to help her fellow health care workers. On March 19, she started making phone calls to every hospital, clinic and nursing home she could find in the phone book in northeast Wisconsin. She made 500 calls and by March 22, she had orders for over 100,000 masks.

In the beginning, she said, some facilities didn’t need them or they had none at all. As the name implies, the group went into “battle mode” after news surfaced of a increase in positive tests at a local meat packing plant.

Though technically in another zone, the Menominee Tribal Clinic was one of the early recipients of the masks, receiving over 600 masks, plus ear savers and face shields.

Dr. Amy Slagle, incident commander for the clinic’s COVID-19 response team, said they’ve distributed the masks to all their staff members to use at work or at home. The masks were also given to diabetic patients and the elders at the Community Based Residential Facility. “We are now handing out masks to patients as they come or leave the facility for home use,” Slagle said.

“We cannot say enough to everyone who have donated to the clinic for the safety of the patients, community and staff,” Slagle added. “We are grateful that we have one more safety net in place to keep our frontline workers and patients safe when they enter our doors.”

Benecke added that the Menominee clinic helped her network with other tribes in the area, including the Stockbridge-Munsee near Bowler and the Oneida Health Center near Green Bay.

The masks are medical grade, with three pleats of fabric in the front and a nosepiece to keep the mask rigid and in place on the face. For many facilities, Benecke said, this design is the only option they need, and they are happy to get them. “The national stockpile is empty,” she said.

Every item for the project has been donated or purchased with donated money, she said, including the cotton fabric, thread and sheet metal for making the nose pieces. The Green Bay Packers gave a $10,000 grant, and other groups have also made sizable donations, she said.

The sheet metal was especially welcome, as her group “bought out all the floral wire and jewelry wire” in the area, Benecke said. Their biggest ongoing need is fabric and elastic.

Benecke credited the donors, her family and the core group at the Velp Avenue headquarters for making the operation work. The space is a combination work space and staging area.

The homemade masks are sorted, bagged and sent from the unused office space in Green Bay, which is closed to visitors to keep it as germ-free as possible. A team of five takes orders and gets them ready to send. Volunteers get supplies and place their completed masks in bins outside the building.

Masks are given away to anyone who asks, including individuals. One request came from a woman 45 miles away, whose husband was newly diagnosed with cancer and about to receive chemotherapy, which can reduce resistance to disease.

“We put them in a bag and sent them out,” Benecke said.

The biggest request came on April 21, for 25,118 masks.

“We were busy that day,” she said.“It’s a nerve-wracked feat of desperation.”

At one facility, she said, after making the delivery, 74 nurses lined up to thank her. They had been required to find masks on their own but were unable to do so, she said.

“All I could do is hand them a mask and pray,” Benecke said.

Anyone interested in ordering masks or making a donation is asked to text (not call) coordinator Liz Benecke at 715-851-0882. Current needs are posted on her Liz Benecke Facebook page.

cryczek@newmedia-wi.com