Article originally posted on the Facewear Fashions blog.
On March 12, 2020, I was in Texas for the first day of a large regional pickleball tourney where I had a booth selling my creation, Sweet Spot Skirts. I had record-breaking sales for an event of this size but this was the day our lives changed because of COVID-19. By 5 pm that day, the event was cancelled and our top priority was to get ourselves safely home to Washington. By the time I actually made it home on March 13, most of our large events over the next 2 months had cancelled and our online sales plummeted along with the stock market. NBA and NCAA cancelled their seasons at the same time we saw the schools across the nation close. Within a week, Sweet Spot Skirts, along with all other non-essential businesses, was shut down by the Governor. It was all very surreal and an abrupt stop.
With the much-needed N95 and medical-grade masks in short supply, all available personal protective equipment was being used in human medicine for COVID-19 protection.
I was approached by Wellhaven Pet Health Clinics to design a surgical hat and mask for their vet clinics across the nation. I knew we could help! We had both the stockpile of necessary materials waiting and the people eager to work. Our goal was to help out the veterinarians and their staff so that the animals could continue to receive essential surgeries, procedures and care. With their initial order, we started to bring back the Sweet Spot Skirts sewing staff and we soon saw the need for protective facewear grow. The partnership between Sweet Spot Skirts and Wellhaven was covered in Vancouver Business Journal, The Oregonian, The Columbian, on Fox Channel 12 and elsewhere. It felt so amazing for our company to be useful during this time of crisis and uncertainty.