In January of 2020, the Kryshak family (owners of Rebel Converting, a company that makes hospital disinfecting wipes) went to southeast Asia. That was around the time news started to travel about Covid-19 being a problem in China. After returning from their trip, Thaddeus was taking the threat of Covid very seriously. As an engineer at Rebel Converting, he realized that the fabric they used in their wipes was the same as the fabric used to make N95 masks and could create disposable face masks. After speaking with his father, the company owner, they decided to use their fabric to make masks.
Once they knew the design worked, their company Rebel produced mask kits. Then they just needed help assembling the masks. The kits included instructions, 700 fabric squares, and 1400 rubber bands. It took up to 15 hours to finish a kit. They started with 6000 total kits. Entire communities all volunteered to help get the kits assembled.
After the masks were assembled, they looked for partners to help with distributions and mask awareness. They met with Heather Perkins. She helped with getting United Way, Milwaukee Bucks, and Fiserv Forum involved. They had thousands of phone calls looking to get masks. Rebel was able to distribute them, focusing on the homeless and communities of low income and color.
#MaskupMKe was born. The initiative, created by Ignite Change and Rebel Reform (Violet Kryshak in charge of Rebels Messaging), got the word even more out there. It spreads the message that you need to mask up whenever going anywhere for your safety and the safety of those around you. They had a goal to get 3.5 million masks out there in the Milwaukee area. They surpassed their goal, getting 4 million masks out there with MaskUp. People everywhere were volunteering to get to that goal, including a high school student who made 10,000 masks over the summer.
Executive Director of Rebel Reform Loretta Kryshak says Rebel will continue to spread the word and help in the fight against Covid. She says their company will continue spreading awareness and help with social injustices and focus on helping those in need. “We believe giving back to the community is everyone’s responsibility.” -Loretta Kryshak.
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