About us

AP Nist and Kevin Gemmell are both engineers in San Diego, CA trying to do our part and help our community during the COVID-19 crisis. We've seen and participated in some of the viral challenges online during the current situation and wanted to create one of our own - the #5000MaskChallenge.

Both of our moms are nurses, and as you have seen in the news, healthcare facilities are extremely low on supplies and are rationing personal protective equipment. Healthcare workers are resorting to reusing single-use surgical masks or resorting to homemade cloth-based masks to try and protect themselves and others. This is still leaving healthcare workers, staff and even patients at risk.

We researched and found that the University of Florida has developed a mask alternative to the N95 respirator using the same material found in operating room sterile fields. This material cannot be penetrated by water, bacteria, or particles. We began looking for material donations of this polypropylene material required to make the mask alternative, but with a majority of suppliers focused on supporting current demand from larger companies, we ended up purchasing the materials needed to produce roughly 5,000 masks mimicking the University of Florida's design.

Then with amazing community support, our GoFundMe Campaign reached our initial goal and then surpassed our second goal of $5,000 in a matter of days! We can't thank you enough! We are now hard at work, collaborating with others in the community to produce as many masks as we can to donate and help our healthcare heroes!