1Million masks campaign starts in Porirua

Here in New Zealand members of Rotary across the country are embarking on a significant project to help support control of Covid 19 Delta in New Zealand and in The Pacific.

Rotary is launching its One Million Masks today through the Rotary Club of Porirua by providing Porirua College with just over 2,000 masks, which is enough for their students until the end of this educational year. With masks mandatory in secondary and intermediate schools, supplying genuinely high- performance yet affordable masks can be challenging.

Rotary has decided that where schools wish to participate in One Million Masks, we will support them by the purchase of these masks on their behalf. Porirua College is a case in point and the first secondary school in the country to be offered such excellent masks.

Across the world members of Rotary are working with communities, and health authorities to communicate lifesaving information about COVID-19 and are donating protective gear and other supplies to clinics and hospitals that are under strain because of the pandemic. Members are also ramping up efforts to help communities navigate the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rotary’s tenacity, strategic partnerships, and innovation can all support the effort to protect communities from COVID-19.

Here in New Zealand members of Rotary across the country are embarking on a significant project to help support control of Covid 19 Delta in New Zealand and in The Pacific.

Rotary is launching its One Million Masks today through the Rotary Club of Porirua by providing Porirua College with just over 2,000 masks, which is enough for their students until the end of this educational year.

With masks mandatory in secondary and intermediate schools, supplying genuinely high- performance yet affordable masks can be challenging. Rotary has decided that where schools wish to participate in One Million Masks, we will support them by the purchase of these masks on their behalf. Porirua College is a case in point and the first secondary school in the country to be offered such excellent masks.

Porirua College principal Ragne Maxwell says this offer from One Million Masks is “like manna from heaven”.

Porirua Mayor Anita Baker was delighted to see a local school benefitting from the One Million Masks project. “This is a wonderful initiative that helps keep our rangatahi and our communities safe and healthy. Thank you to all involved in making this happen.”

Thanks to Rotary’s One Million Masks, New Zealand’s schools and communities at need, and those communities at need in the Pacific, are being treated as Olympians, because our masks are exactly the same as those specifically developed for and worn in Tokyo by New Zealand’s Olympics team, which said this:
“Critical to the New Zealand Team’s success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was the safety and wellbeing of our athletes in a restricted and challenging environment.

The Lanaco masks were excellent, providing our athletes the protection they needed to stay healthy and ensure they could perform at their best on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

Our team were able to depart Tokyo without a single COVID-19 positive test and this was in no small measure down to the quality and effectiveness of the Lanaco masks.”

Jake Wilkins, Team Services Director, New Zealand Olympic Committee
Rotary has chosen to work with New Zealand’s specialist high-technology filter company Lanaco, whose air filters are made from wool from sheep grazing on New Zealand farms. Lanaco adds these filters to Rotary’s One Million Masks.

Rotary’s masks are extremely high performance. Developed to align with World Health Organisation guidelines to provide the three essential masking elements to address Delta: Fit, filtration and breathability, they achieve practical particle removal at N95 level whilst being comfortable to wear and easy to breathe through.

Rotary is delighted to offer communities in need, here and in the Pacific, one of the world’s most effective masks to protect against exhaled and inhaled risks, whilst supporting New Zealand sheep farms at the same time. NASA chose Lanaco’s filters to support manned exploration to the moon and Mars. Communities here and in The Pacific in need, thanks to One Million Masks, will benefit from the same exceptional technology - a win all round.

Lanaco is the same company that supported Rotary earlier this year by donating over 75,000 masks to Fiji which were distributed to those in need.

Whilst Lanaco’s products are available from their website, their support for Rotary is being done at a significantly reduced price. With Lanaco’s support and the generous support of Charitable Trusts, schools, local businesses, and individuals, we will be able to keep our and The Pacific’s communities safe.
One million masks will be a truly great contribution to that goal.

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