This week, the Beacon Hill Civic Association began distributing 120 protective face-masks free of charge to seniors.
Rob Whitney, president of the Civic Association board, tracked down the vendor, Custom Ink, a Fairfax-Va. Based online retail company that manufactures custom apparel (www.customink.com), and ordered the face-masks while Patricia Tully, executive director of the Civic Association, facilitated distribution of the masks to Beacon House, the Bowdoin School Apartment Homes on Myrtle Street, the Peter Faneuil House and the Anderson Park apartments at 250 Cambridge St., through their respective building management.
“The idea is to get them to seniors who want to get out a little bit or have to go to an appointment,” Whitney said.
Each mask comes in a baggie with instructions on how to use it, as well as contact information for emergency resources available to neighbors.
Tully said she realized the need to provide seniors with critical information after a resident of one of the buildings came to her with concerns over food insecurity soon after the city’s stay-at-home advisory went into effect.
“People depend so much on the Internet and on their phones, we forget that not everyone is connected, and now with the West End library closed, some don’t have any access at all to that information,” Tully said, prompting the Civic Association to expanded its outreach efforts to seniors in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, if demand is sufficient, the Civic Association will order and distribute more free face-masks around the neighborhood.
“If more people want them, we’ll order more,” Whitney said.