Community leadership · 2020–2022
Sew Away
Corona.
More than 500,000 masks delivered to frontline workers.
A community of makers, donors and volunteers, showing up for the people who needed us.
Two Citi collaborations
From hospital teams
to the school year.
I founded Sew Away Corona in 2020, bringing professional seamstresses, Broadway costume designers and community volunteers together around requests for help. I coordinated supplies, corporate outreach, packing, shipping and deliveries so that people who wanted to contribute had a way to do it.
01 / Frontline care
A little care for the people providing it.
With Citi and community supporters, I coordinated care packages containing masks, ear savers, personal-care products, snacks and thank-you cards for nurses, physicians and other frontline workers.
Hospital recipients included Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and NewYork-Presbyterian Queens. Photographs and delivery messages also document teams at Mount Sinai and North Shore.
Citi Treasury and Trade Services publicly acknowledged the collaboration on June 30, 2020.
02 / Back to school
Ready for a different kind of school year.
The second Citi collaboration supported donations of backpacks, school supplies and protective items. I coordinated sourcing, packing and distribution with the project team.
Donations reached The Midland School and John P. Stevens High School. The project photographs show the bags and supplies arriving at schools.
LUSH-supported frontline campaign · June 2020
Care for the people
caring for us.
I organized a campaign to donate 3,000 gift bags to hospital workers in New York and New Jersey. Each bag contained three donated LUSH products.
The June 16 project post records the campaign and shows hospital staff receiving the gifts. Support from Supergoop! and community partners also helped the wider relief effort.
From collecting products to packing bags and coordinating deliveries, this work gave volunteers and businesses a practical way to thank frontline teams.
The people behind the deliveries
Skills, supplies
and follow-through.
I mobilized professional seamstresses, 20 Broadway costume designers and community volunteers, matching requests from hospitals with people who could sew and materials they could use.
From a volunteer · May 2020
“Sew Away Corona has been invaluable coordinating people from all walks of life to use their skills, distribute materials, and getting the lovingly made PPE directly into the hands of our first responders.”
In the same account, Lucie reported personally making more than 500 masks, mask filters and surgical caps.
Designing for sore ears
I designed mask adapters and arranged 3D printing to help relieve pressure from straps for healthcare workers and children wearing masks.
A volunteer’s words · March 2020
“I am grateful!”
Rose Capone’s handwritten note accompanied donated masks. It captures the personal care behind a much larger volunteer effort: people using their time and skills to help someone else.
Project impact
More than half a million masks.
Through Sew Away Corona, we delivered more than 500,000 masks to frontline workers. The early press reports below capture milestones within that wider effort.
- 500,000+
- Masks delivered to frontline workers through Sew Away Corona.
- 2,000+
- Masks made and sent to at least five New York City hospitals, as reported by NY City Lens.
- 5,000
- Surgical masks procured, reported by New Jersey 101.5 on April 13, 2020. The report also recorded 2,000 group members within a week.
- $12,323
- Raised through the Sew Away Corona GoFundMe campaign, from 237 donations.
Original photographs and project records from Lisa Zahakos’s archive, framed to focus on the people and donations. Organization names describe their involvement in the 2020 projects. Visit Sew AWAY Corona on Facebook (Facebook sign-in may be required).
The work continues
Helping people take
the next useful step.
Today, through HEART RESERVE and my family advocacy, I help people find clear information, prepare questions and connect with support.