Nordstrom partners with local furniture store, produce face masks for healthcare workers

After Providence Health put out a global request for more personal protective equipment (PPEs) for doctors, nurses and other health care workers, local manufacturer Kaas Tailored and retail giant Nordstrom partnered together to answer the high demand.

As part of Providence’s 100 Million Mask challenge, Kaas and Nordstrom are producing daily personal face masks and face shields at their facilities. Nordstrom recently partnered with local Mukilteo furniture store, Kaas Tailoring, to make face masks.

>> Local manufacturing company steps up to help hospitals in need of supplies

Members of the Nordstrom alteration teams in California, Oregon, Texas and Washington will be sewing more than 100,000 face masks to be distributed to Providence Health in Seattle. Kaas Tailored typically makes furniture for aerospace clients. Founder Dan Kaas told KIRO 7 earlier this week it didn’t take long to setup an action plan after answering Providence’s call.

“I said, ‘Hey, do you need help?’ and about five minutes later she texted me saying, ‘Yeah, we want to talk.’ And that was Wednesday, and there was a plan put in place by the end of the day,” Kaas said in an interview with KIRO 7′s Rob Munoz.

In an online video posted to the Kaas Tailored website, Kaas details its new Essential PPE Network Equation, how it’s going about meeting the demands of the mask production and the structure working with other manufactures who also want to help. Kaas Tailored is continuing to make thousands of masks a day, but said it’s working at full capacity and cannot fill new orders at this time.

Providence is referring manufacturers in Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Texas and Washington who are interested in making PPEs to reach out to Kaas. Manufacturers in other states who want to help make face masks can reach out to the American Hospital Association.

Nordstrom will continue to offer additional support to local partners the Seattle Foundation, YouthCare, and Hetrick Martin Institute (HMI). Nordstrom is also donating 1% of its gift card sales to support community grants and programs during the coronavirus relief efforts.

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