San Diego County–based small business hires three full-time employees to sew masks for community, subcontractors and local law enforcement
LAKESIDE, CA – In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Adamo Security Group has announced that it has hired three full-time employees to sew non-medical-grade masks to donate to its employees, their families, their communities, Adamo’s subcontractors, other essential businesses and local law enforcement.
Because construction is deemed an essential business, Adamo has kept its business operating through the statewide shelter-in-place orders. The company had begun to make masks for its employees on a small scale in late March, but when the San Diego County Public Health Order was revised on April 3 to include facial coverings, Adamo decided to ramp up production by hiring additional people.
“We thought not only about how does our business keep functioning so that people get their paychecks and the Adamo family gets paid,” said Adamo CEO Josh Godknecht, “but how can we help trailblaze for other essential businesses to regroup and find a way forward? Because it’s less than straightforward how to do business right now.”
It came down to something simple: masks. Even before it was required, Adamo’s own people were making non-medical-grade masks to be used by themselves and their communities. “But then this lightbulb moment came on: We’ve been very blessed to keep winning contracts and still working and growing,” Godknecht said. “We can’t solve the millions of people filing for unemployment, but we can do our part—we can create a couple jobs for a couple months, and that’s what we did.”
Godknecht said he’s realized how many essential businesses, such as the food-service industry and auto body shops, don’t have the ability to get masks quickly for their employees. To date, more than 200 masks have been donated to Adamo’s employees, job sites and local essential businesses. Adamo plans to make cotton masks for the next 60 days and hopes to donate at least 2,000 more, including to the Escondido Police Department and the local food-service industry.
“We’re doing what we can,” Godknecht said, “which is what we all need to be doing.”
