'Somebody Had to Do It': The Motorcyclists Delivering Lifesaving Supplies to the Bay Area

Somebody had to do it. She and other riders were concerned not only about the risk of directly interacting with people, but also about the medical resources they would be diverting if they got into an accident in the delivery process and needed to go to the hospital.

Ultimately though, everyone decided that the cause outweighed the risks.

“There was a scary lack of medical equipment. And people were making it,” Carrera says. “And it had to be delivered. Somebody had to do it. And here we are all geared up, practically wearing PPE [personal protective equipment] anyway. It just made sense.”

From there, Dames Do Care delivery was born.

Partnering with local groups like Make Me PPE Bay Area, Carrera and a team of volunteers began working nearly 12-hour days connecting people who were sewing (or sometimes 3D-printing) face masks with hospitals, clinics and other institutions in need of PPE. To date, the group has delivered more than 20,000 masks throughout the Bay Area.

For most deliveries, riders stuff their backpacks with the sanitized supplies. But some situations force them to get creative — like when they got a request to deliver an entire sewing machine to someone making masks.

“That’s part of the fun,” Carrera laughs. “We don’t want you to tell us if we can set it on the bike because we all think we can carry, you know, half of our house on the bike.”

Dames Don’t Care founder Emily Wakeman is one of the riders who has helped Dames Do Care complete more than 400 deliveries since March. She says she’s had several “tear jerk moments,” including when the entire staff of a nursing home ran out to say thank you when she dropped off masks. She also met a man who told her that the group saved him local shipping costs, allowing him to ship the medical supplies to New York and Detroit.

“And I was like, oh my God, you know, at that point we’re affecting multiple cities. That’s amazing,” Wakeman says.

And it wasn’t just the health workers who were feeling grateful. “I think motorcyclists that were riding with us got so much out of it, personally,” Wakeman says.

Volunteer riders proudly post photos of their loaded-up bikes on the Dames Do Care Facebook page, giving thumbs up in thick motorcycle gloves, their faces scrunched but beaming under helmets and masks.

“Everyone initially was really excited both to have a good reason to ride, and it made us all feel good to … be able to be doing something other than just sitting around watching this all unfold out of control,” Carrera says.

At its peak, Dames was organizing up to 15 deliveries a day throughout the Bay Area. This has since slowed down, which Carrera thinks has something to do with decreasing PPE production and many volunteers returning to work — including her.

Although the effort started with COVID-19, Wakeman says she wants to keep the momentum of volunteer riding going long after shelter in place is over (whenever that may be.)

“I’m looking at getting a 501(c)(3) [nonprofit status] and kind of doing it a little more legit,” she says. “I would really like to continue the Dames Do Care doing awesome stuff for the Bay Area community.”