Three local companies are working together to help the city of Rochester mail nearly half a million masks to 96,000 households.

“96,000 mailing envelopes is a pretty tall order to get them in short notice in a couple of days,” Canfield and Tack President Ray Brown said.

Brown said working together is the key to such an undertaking.

The city will distribute the masks, which were provided by Monroe County. Brown’s company is taking care of the logistics of mailing and labeling the envelopes, while Panther Graphics printed the letter inserts.

Finally, Diversipak is handing the packing of five masks per envelope.

“We have a very large crew coming in starting tomorrow morning on full production. We will be working as fast and as hard as we can to get them out to the people’s homes,” said Diversipak’s President Tamara Schenkel.

Schenkel says mailing the masks is a vital service.

“There are quite a few senior citizens, there are disabled people. There are a lot of people where this is going to be great. It’s not like they can get in the car and go to Walmart to pick them up,” Schenkel said.

Brown said it’s keeping all their employees working, too.

“It gives us an opportunity to work with two other companies that we’ve known for a long time, but each of us got a piece of it. Happy to get everybody busy and employed, it’s been great,” Brown said.

Most importantly, both presidents are glad to have collaborated on an essential task that will benefit the residents of the city.

“This all came together in a matter of days, really coordinating multiple companies, the post office, the mayor’s office," Brown said. "It’s been a pretty quick ride, but it’s come together very nicely.”

The envelopes will begin mailing Wednesday, and Rochester residents can expect them to arrive in the next three or four days.