Chicagoans are busy creating thousands of homemade masks for the city’s cloth drive to assist at-risk communities.
The “Chicago Together! Make a Mask, Give a Mask, Wear a Mask” initiative, launched April 25 by the mayor and the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC), encourages residents to make and donate homemade cloth 
masks that will be provided to Chicago’s vulnerable residents, “further building on Mayor Lightfoot’s hyper-focused strategy centered around deep, consistent education and outreach to communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19,” the Mayor’s office said in a statement.
masks that will be provided to Chicago’s vulnerable residents, “further building on Mayor Lightfoot’s hyper-focused strategy centered around deep, consistent education and outreach to communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19,” the Mayor’s office said in a statement.Today marks the second round of mask drop-offs around the city at several aldermanic offices and churches. In Edgewater, Alderman harry Osterman (48th Ward) will receive 1,000 homemade cloth masks by Imran Dhatwani, president of the Ismaili Council for the Midwest and the Ismaili Muslim community, the city announced Friday. Dhatwani and his organization made 2,500 masks total; the rest will be donated in the coming weeks.
During the pandemic, members of the community have made and donated up to 5,000 masks to first responders, hospitals and community groups including the 24th Chicago Police District, Chicago Fire Department Engines 59 and 70, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Thorek Memorial Hospital, Methodist Hospital of Chicago, and organizations such as Care for Real on Chicago’s North Side. Their program is called Masks for All.
