As part of its growing endeavors, Reno / Sparks Mutual Aid is now teaming up with other groups, both local and in California, to provide quality N 95 respirator masks, to those in need, many of them living mostly outside, through a nearly permanent slog of dangerous air quality and threatening COVID variants.
The initiative as one of the coordinators Meghan Archambault explained to Our Town Reno on a recent phone call is called Help Sierra Breathe. “What happened is somebody from Mask Oakland reached out to Heather Carpenter from Washoe Basics and said, you know, I've been wanting to see about helping groups in Reno and in the surrounding Lake Tahoe area to get these N 95 masks out. Mask Oakland originally started doing this in 2017 with the wildfires that they were seeing in California. And so she let me know, and I said that Reno Sparks Mutual Aid would most definitely be interested in helping get masks out.”
In addition to the Bay Area non-profit, which helped get access to masks which can be occasionally difficult to source through its existing vendor network, the initiative also brings together Puff Puff Pass the Love and Washoe Basics here in Northern Nevada, as well as Mask Sonoma, Rural Resistance Placerville and Black Lives Matter Eldorado County.
“We quickly realized that not any one group could handle getting N 95 masks out to the entire Sierra Nevada region because the Sierra Nevada region is what's being affected with the wildfire smoke, which is giving us the worst air quality consistently, honestly, in the world,” Archambault said.
With financial tax-deductible donations, Reno / Sparks Mutual Aid and Washoe Basics are buying masks in bulk orders from Mask Oakland, and then distributing them themselves and via other groups. Archambault recently went herself with her husband distributing close to a hundred along the Truckee River.
“It does damage before you even realize it's doing damage, with the wildfire smoke, it does make you more vulnerable to not only health effects from it, but to COVID-19 because it's causing lung damage,” Archambault said of the double whammy the region is currently getting.
Wide Outreach and Distribution Amid Terrible AQI
More masks are being distributed to fire evacuation shelters, outside the Nevada Cares Campus during outreach gatherings and to people living in motels.
“A lot of the people that we have in our group, they walk a lot,” Archambault said of the mutual aid community, which includes both people being helped, and those doing the helping, which also overlaps. “They take the bus a lot. So they're outside more than your average person in this smoke. We also have people that are individuals we help frequently who are immunocompromised, who haven't really been going out because of the fact that COVID-19 was going on. And now should they go out? Not only do they have to worry about COVID, they have to worry about the wildfire smoke. And so we've been able to get those individuals N95s for when they have to be outside as well. We're seeing communities that have 400, 500, 600 AQI and we've had days like that here in Reno, where they canceled school. ”
One recipient who has been staying at the Washoe County run safe camp said the mask has been helpful to feel more secure. Another recipient living in subsidized housing with poor ventilation and severe asthma was also “incredibly grateful.” Archambault said poor ventilation is a problem in many apartments and motels.
“Some of them have old style, swamp coolers, which are just blowing air in from outside. So it's basically blowing in cooled off smoke. It’s really uncomfortable for a lot of people and even more so for the ones who can't really escape it, whether it's because of their housing or lack thereof or the fact that they have to take the bus and walk a lot or whatever. There was one woman I talked to downtown who was unsheltered. And she said that she had to get taken to the hospital because she just couldn't breathe.”
Archambault said that woman has been fearful of going to a shelter with too many other people around her as well. “Either capacity is limited or they're then taking another risk of being around other people and potentially catching the Delta variant. And it's kind of this whole snowball effect of do I want to go inside a shelter and be around other people? I mean, frankly, the city of Reno could do well to open something like a clean air shelter, and get air purifiers down at [the] Cares [campus]. Our primary concern with this initiative is making sure these masks get to people who would have frankly, no shot of accessing them if they weren't able to get them from us.”
More donations, she explains, means new orders and more quality masks being given to people who need the most, and can’t afford them themselves. “The n95s that we get, they're the ones that have a tight seal around the face, straps going around the back of the head. And they have a bracket that can be fitted just by pressing it against your nose, but they really do provide protection. I have severe asthma. I was running around in the smoke for hours just a few days ago and I had no problems and they really do provide a lot of protection.”
The mask program has been a collaboration amplifying capabilities of different mutual aid groups including the Reno/Sparks Mutual Aid, which has a thriving community on Facebook.
Organizational Virtues of Mutual Aid Groups
Organizationally, this has been a step up for the group she helps coordinate. “One of the biggest lessons that we're learning is that every single group has its own ideas of how to distribute and how to contribute and how to come together. The community is going to be different when we all have this spirit of wanting to help others, especially the most vulnerable members of our community. It functions so well because while we all have different ideas and different ways of doing things, we all have a general goal, which is to help each other. And when we're able to bring a coalition together like this, not only are we able to share resources and volunteers and that kind of thing, but we're also able to share ideas and camaraderie and everything else. Because when we talk about mutual aid, one of the biggest ideas behind it is that it's community helping community. So it's been easy for us as groups to, to incorporate this distribution into work we were already doing.”
Some people being helped still don’t understand there are no strings attached to the help. “I had a lady who asked me for a pen… so that she could fill out my “BS form.” And I said, what form? And she goes, well you people always have some kind of form or something I got to fill out. And I said, no. I said, we've got water too. And she looked at me and she goes, well, ‘what do I got to do is just take it.’ And she was just stunned that we were able to do that.”
Archambault is disappointed more isn’t being done at the Cares Campus, but is more than happy to step in with help. “Those are folks who are outside pretty much 24/7. And you can't tell me that the ventilation at the Cares building itself is going to help with the wildfire smoke. Especially if people are coming in and out constantly. It's disappointing to see the city leave vulnerable populations behind because unfortunately it feels like that's been somewhat of a pattern where they almost are kind of missing the forest for the trees.”
For those who want to help with their time, the Sierra Breathe website also has a volunteer section, with different roles from coordination to distribution and social media. From those donating, there’s possibilities for recurring monthly payments or one-time donations.
“None of us are paid doing this,” Archambault said, keeping in line with the mutual aid philosophy. “This is going back into the effort, to protect vulnerable people. It can be so toxic that the city is saying, do not leave your house, remain indoors, you know, run your air purifiers. Don't run run cooling systems that have an external intake. That's well and good, but that doesn't help the person who's sleeping down on City Plaza because they don't have a place to stay, because they don't feel comfortable in a shelter environment that doesn't help them. So we're the ones who are going back out and we're helping them.”
Archambault said this project can also be an entry point for people to get into the local mutual aid movement and help in many different ways.
“They can join our Facebook group. One of the biggest things that we sometimes need help with is when we have somebody who is offering something, and then somebody says, yes, I need that thing that you are offering. But I don't have a car…. So we love drivers. We love people who are willing to step in and say, I have a car, I have a truck. I have the time I will come to your house and drop it off to your house. That is one of the easiest, biggest ways that people can get involved right now with the things that we're doing online, besides helping to distribute masks, or donating. I would say that the most crucial aspect of this coalition is we need the monetary donations to keep going. So getting involved in the mutual aid movement can seem intimidating, but there's little tiny things that you can do that are a part of mutual aid that are so appreciated and that are so wanted and so needed by people who need help. It's it's not something to be intimidated about. If you want something to do, I will help you find something to do.”
Reporting by Our Town Reno, September 2021