How the Colorado Rockies face mask project began and flourished

While much has changed in the past two months across the globe, there have been some glimmers of hope from people helping others, including some cases involving some residents of Pueblo and involving the Colorado Rockies.

Many governmental leaders in Colorado and across the United States and across the world have stated the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE), including facial masks, particularly for those who have preexisting health issues, the elderly, and those who may have symptoms of COVID-19. During this time, there have been two local families that have been making as many masks as they can with some help from the Colorado Rockies and their communications and marketing office.

They are the Drake family and Martinez family, both of whom reside in Pueblo, roughly two hours south of Denver. The Rockies got in touch with the two families via social media and, more specifically, Twitter.

Nearly two weeks ago, @Rockies reached out via Twitter since they had dozens of jerseys in their “swag room” proposing the idea that the fabric could be used as a mask. Within a day, they were in touch with both families and delivered the jerseys to them to make for masks.

“For us, this was just a unique way that we could create a fan engagement opportunity and do something impactful that fills a need in the community…” said Julian Valentin, the Rockies director of brand management and social media, in an exclusive conversation with Rox Pile. “We were able to scour our Twitter feed and see some people that were already doing those types of great things in their community and it just so happened that both of them were in Pueblo which made it an easy trip…[I]t’s the power of social media and connecting people and we were able to do that.”

Then, they created some masks for the rest of their family, friends, social media acquaintances, and neighbors.

“We tried to match cotton fabrics to people’s style, colors or interests,” said Martinez via email. “About the same time, [Colorado Governor Jared] Polis mandated the use of face coverings in public. We had so many requests for [designs of] sports teams that we ran out of licensed fabric quickly. Hobby stores were closed due to COVID, online sold out quickly and very little mask-making supplies were in stock in those stores that remained open.”

Martinez said that she @’d the Rockies, Broncos, Avs, and Nuggets on her Twitter in a post a few weeks ago.

“People started sharing pics on Twitter of masks we had made and given them,” said Martinez. “Anybody who needed one or knew someone who needed masks started reaching out to us. We added their names to our lists. I even randomly met a few people in a store line that we were able to provide masks for. We snail mailed and shipped the masks via UPS.  We did no-contact deliveries and people here in town picked them up from our porches.

Julian Valentin reached out to her via Twitter DM with the idea of using some of the promo jerseys for masks. Most of them were returned to the Rockies but a small batch was kept for some local non-profits in the southern Colorado area on behalf of the Colorado Rockies.

The social media outreach

Martinez explained that they have had “countless positive responses across social media” for her and her family.

“[It m]akes us realize just how many people want to wear masks to protect themselves and those around them…” said Martinez. “We are blessed to have been a part of this amazing team effort.  We thank the Rockies for choosing our family.”

Since there has been more of a demand, Martinez said that they now have four people working on the masks, including her, her mother, her sister, Vanessa, and her 12-year old son, Braden. Her sister, Karen, is helping us from Seattle by finding filter material and online ordering.

Total, they have made “well over 400 masks” and they are still getting requests daily but despite spending the countless hours making the masks, she says that “[a]ll credit goes to Julian and his staffers. He has found a silver lining during these difficult times.”

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The Drake family

Paul Drake was a respiratory therapist and a director of respiratory therapy for over 20 years before retiring. Since retiring, he and his family started up a handmade soap company called Twisted Rabbit Creations.

When the pandemic started, though, they started making masks for their family (since their son, daughter, and son-in-law each work in a hospital and they weren’t fans of the masks that the hospital was providing) and to sell on their website.

The Rockies heard of the family through Twitter and reached out to them so that they could help make ends meet with their small business and also make the masks in general. They have been working overtime throughout the pandemic as Drake said, in an exclusive conversation with Rox Pile, that he and his family have been working “10-14 hours a day, every day for the last six weeks.”

Before the pandemic, they were mainly getting orders for their soap in Colorado but now, with the help of Rockies Twitter, Drake told Rox Pile that they are getting orders for their products from thousands of miles away, including New York, Maryland, and Maine.

With the Rockies jerseys that Valentin provided the Drake family for the masks, they made nearly 300 masks in a week.

“For me…[the families] are the ones who are the stars of this,” said Valentin. “I can’t even tell you how many hours they’ve probably invested in their living rooms, their basements, making these and for me, this was a project that is the epitome of ‘people helping people’ and I think that’s one thing that we can all be doing right now is thinking about how we can engage in our communities and help people even if we can’t be together physically.”

You can follow Christina Martinez on Twitter @OrangeChrustina and Twisted Rabbit Creations on Twitter @TwistedRabbit_ or visit their website www.twistedrabbitcreations.com.