Black lives matter

Hello Friends,
This is Casey McCully, the Executive Director of Masks of Love. From the inception of this group, we have been dedicated to attempting to help our community and neighbors breathe more safely with our masks despite, race, gender, or socio-economic status.
While we set out to protect the citizens of Western North Carolina from Covid-19, the disease has been disproportionately harder on Black communities- a result of long-term systemic health care discrimination. Recently we've witnessed terrible violent racism, leading to the murders of George Floyd, David McAtee, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbury. Now we are reminded that Covid-19 is not the only threat to our Black and Brown neighbor’s fundamental rights to breathe safely.
Black Lives Matter. In light of recent events, we at Masks of Love want to do more to acknowledge this critical moment and the need for continued safety and health. We have been block printing a line masks with the Black Lives Matter symbol and we will be selling them on our site. While we usually set aside proceeds from our sales to fund donating masks to our community partners, for this mask, we will be donating $3 from each sale to National Bail Out.

“National Bail Out is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration. We are people who have been impacted by cages — either by being in them ourselves or witnessing our families and loved ones be encaged. We are queer, trans, young, elder, and immigrant." - From www.nationalbailout.org.

Masks of Love has already donated masks to communities such as Hillcrest, Deaverview, BeLoved, and Green Opportunities Kitchen. We aim to continue serving our communities. We welcome hearing from families and organizations in need of masks. We want our Black and Brown neighbors to be treated with respect, to be heard, and to be able to breathe easy because we believe BLACK LIVES MATTER.

In Peace, Justice, and Wellness,
Casey McCully