friends forever four questions for sffs grads olivia ‘17 & kate ‘18, founders of olivia & kate masks
As the COVID pandemic spread across the US in early spring, SFFS grads Olivia Aguirre (SFFS ‘17) and Kate Vostrejs (SFFS ‘18) came up with an idea to get masks in the hands—and on the faces—of friends and family, while also helping important organizations in their community. Since then, Olivia & Kate has taken off, and the two can barely keep up with their list of orders. 1) What was the genesis of the idea for your mask-making nonprofit? How did you come up with the idea, and how did it grow into what it is now? Olivia & Kate started off very simply: just us making masks during our spare time during shelter in place for our family members and
people in our close communities. Olivia was the one who initially started making masks and she eventually taught Katie how to sew them. At that point we both were just sewing a few masks at a time, and then had the hopes of donating some to a couple of local organizations, such as Family House at UCSF Benioff Children’s
Hospital. We both had loads of really beautiful and useful leftover fabric from our respective family members (grandmothers, moms, etc.), and it was then that we realized that people might want to buy them! We started making more and more masks with hopes of selling them and donating the money, and so we set up our online store page 13
