Ashley hunkered down at home when the pandemic hit and started a volunteer PPE effort with her mother in the San Francisco Bay Area community. Alongside her mother, and a volunteer army of folks who could sew, fabricate, and coordinate, Make Me PPE Bay Area donated over 30,000 Units of PPE during Spring and Summer of 2020.
Chiu, who has performed with Hillbarn Theatre and Broadway by the Bay, was cast as Sleeping Beauty in “Once Upon a One More Time,” the Britney Spears jukebox musical scheduled to begin a pre-Broadway run in Chicago this month. She returned to her family’s home in San Mateo when the outbreak hit and her show was canceled.
“I’m one of the unemployed theater folks, just like all the others here in the Bay Area and all over the country,” she told The Chronicle by phone. She figured, “Why not take the love and the passion and the care that we have for our community and turn it into something that’s productive and helpful at this time?”
Lily Janiak, SF Chronicle
Ashley was invited to speak as a Panelist at the Capital Hill Maker Faire sponsored by members of US Congress aimed at discussing open source innovation during the pandemic and how makers and hobbyists alike came together to support and protect their communities when global supply chains shut down.
ASHLEY CHIU 