About Bloomington Mask Drive
Bloomington Mask Drive co-founders Kelly Clark and Nola Hartman were strangers to one another when they teamed up to form Bloomington Mask Drive on March 20, 2020. Nola – Bloomington Quilters Guild member, foster-kitten mom, and retired librarian, brought sewing skill and deep community roots. Kelly - Doctor of Physical Therapy and founder of Patient PT, brought healthcare, project management, and information technology expertise.
United in their mission to stem the spread of COVID-19 by providing clean, high-quality, homemade fabric masks to Bloomington and Monroe County free of charge, Kelly and Nola recruited 350+ volunteers and distributed 25,000 clean masks in their first three months. Kelly retired from BMD in May of 2021 while Nola continued the effort alongside Kell and many other volunteers until July of 2022, ultimately making and distributing over 90,000 free fabric masks.
Nola Neher Hartman represents the Bloomington Quilter's Guild, and she got involved in mask-making in mid-March 2020 when was contacted for help making fabric masks for a pediatric clinic. She asked a few of her friends from the Quilters Guild for help, and soon found herself inundated with too many requests to handle. When Nola asked for help via Monroe County Area Mutual Aid, Kelly remembered running into her at Joann Fabrics and answered the call.
Nola coordinated all sewing materials distribution, helped mask-makers with sewing questions, and managed all the sewing-related volunteers.
Nola fosters newborn kittens and their rescue moms in her free time, and is well known as that quilter with the blue hair.
Kelly Clark, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Massage Therapist, and owner of Patient PT first got interested in mask-making in early March 2020, when she decided to start wearing masks every day in her clinic and wanted to provide them for her clients and patients as well. With no disposable masks to be found, she started working on getting some made and met Nola in the process.
Kelly developed all management and distribution processes, built our website, and handled all communications related to this effort until she stepped down in May 2021 to focus on her private clinic.
Kelly's clinic Patient PT is the Premier Partner of Bloomington Mask Drive, and hosted our first community mask station in our Partners & Friends program.
Kelly loves rabbits and the color green, and laughs really, really loudly.
After Bloomington Mask Drive was asked to move out of their donated space (their sixth move!) Area 10 Agency on Aging stepped up to offer their space at Endwright East Senior Center and hosted the second community mask station in our Partners & Friends program.