Spring’s Return
Here in Vermont, Spring is just starting to show. After a long, dark, and colorless winter, the sight of budding flowers and sprouting leaves feels almost impossible. But each year, as it always has, Spring returns to remind us that brighter times lie ahead.
Even after two years of a pandemic, it’s impossible to know what comes next. Yet it’s hard not to feel that we’re entering a new phase—one that, despite all the challenges facing the world, might feel a little more like “normal.” Although the Omicron BA.2 variant has overtaken BA.1 as the dominant strain in the US, now constituting 72% of cases, boosters have been shown to be effective against the BA.2 variant. And though we must continue to advocate for those who can safely get vaccines to do so, 77% of the US population is now vaccinated. Masks continue to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, but medical experts are finding increasing consensus in the view that mask recommendations can be eased provided sufficiently low hospitalization rates.
We cannot afford to let up our guard, nor can we reasonably conclude that the tides won’t turn against us once more in the fight against the pandemic. But perhaps we can begin to look forward with cautious optimism to a return to something more like life as we knew it before the pandemic. Perhaps we can even take a moment to “smell the flowers.”
With that in mind, we wanted to take a moment to do so ourselves, by reflecting on some of the extraordinary results our network of nonprofit partners has achieved.
With our March donation of another 13,000 masks to the Vermont Foodbank, we’ve brought our total count of masks distributed to 123,000!
Over 100 nonprofits have now participated in our program, and we thank each and every one of them for not just their support of Masks4Missions, but their unwavering commitment to the life-changing missions they serve.
We’re continuing to evaluate our supply chain in light of the CDC’s guidance on N95/KN95 masks, but in the meantime, we’ve hit a major milestone by selling out all inventory on our store!
Reflecting on our months of shared work alongside our nonprofit partners these past months, we want to reiterate our unending thanks. While we don’t know what awaits us ahead, we are both grateful to all we’ve crossed paths with along the way and hopeful for brighter times together ahead!
