Local groups team up to give away face masks
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Jennifer Killian of First Choice Employment Services hands out free masks Tuesday. A local agency and two community service organizations partnered to distribute the masks.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Bryan Blann of the Columbia Basin Elks hawks free masks. An agency and two community service organizations teamed up to distribute free masks Tuesday.
Cheryl Schweizer/ Columbia Basin Herald Mary Thorn has free masks to give away Tuesday. A local organization and two community service organizations worked together on the giveaway.
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake service organizations teamed up with a local agency to give away face masks to anyone who needed a mask, or multiple masks, Tuesday.
Volunteers from First Choice Employment Services and Columbia Basin Elks were joined by members of the Moses Lake-Othello Association of Realtors to hand out the masks. Jennifer Killian, one of the organizers, said they had 10,000 masks to give away.
Killian is the program director at First Choice, which works with people with disabilities or disabling circumstances, helping them find jobs and get involved in the community. Killian said she received an email offering free masks on a first-come basis. The only stipulation was that the masks could not be sold.
“I ordered a pallet,” she said. “I got the email, and we were right there.”
The masks were offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Killian is a member of the Columbia Basin Elks and recruited fellow club members to help hand out masks. She also asked the Realtors association for some additional help. Past president Doug Robins said the Realtors were happy to join in.
The mask giveaway was set up in the parking lot at 938 W. Third Ave., which is accessible from both Third Avenue and West Broadway. Mary Thorn, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Ranch & Home, stood on the sidewalk along West Broadway, her hands full of masks. She was prepared to give a mask — or two or more — to anyone who needed them.
“We’re here because we care about our community,” Thorn said.
She wants businesses to stay open, she said, and people need to wear masks in order for that to happen.
Killian said if any masks were left, she hoped to set up a second distribution, with the place and time to be announced.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].
