BOYNE CITY, Mich. – As COVID-19 spreads and the demand for healthcare supplies increase, northern Michigan companies are working to do their part.
UPDATE, March 28, 3 p.m.: Michigan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases total 4,650; Death toll rises to 111
WPBN reports two businesses in Boyne City are teaming together to make supplies for hospitals across the country.
“We don’t need to be making skis,” said Jeff Thompson, the co-owner of Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis. “The ski areas are shut down we can do something else.”
Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis is known for ski-equipment, but during the coronavirus pandemic, it’s focusing on something different.
“We just received the material," Thompson said, “It’s a special anti-fog material for face shields and we just received that today so we’re starting to cut 'em right now.”
Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis is planning to make 150,000 disposable face shields -- and possibly disposable goggles too -- for healthcare workers across Michigan and beyond.
They’re not the only ones.
Jeff is teaming up with his brother Jonathan, the president of 1-800 Stencil, a company that makes stencils for pavement marking.
Both brothers said these face shields will help supply a much-needed demand.
“So far, we’ve had hospitals say how many can we have, give us all of them and we’ve had to say that we can only allot so many because our production can only meet such a demand,” said Jonathan Thompson. “We do have a lot of different hospitals from the area who are interested.”
The face shields will go to McLaren and Munson hospitals and possibly to other Michigan hospitals like Henry Ford and Beaumont.
Hospitals as far away as Boston and California have also expressed interest.
Producing the face shields won’t just help healthcare workers, Jonathan said it’s also helping 1-800 Stencil keep employees.
One of the machines at 1-800 STENCIL making the disposable face shields that will be distributed to hospitals across Michigan and the country.
“We want to make sure that we’re self-sustaining and that our business can stay up and running,” said Jonathan. “We really appreciate our employees and we like them being here and we want to do everything that we can to keep them around.”
Most of all both brothers are just happy to be part of a good cause.
“All we wanna do is help be part of a solution so we can all get back to work get back to normal life,” said Jeff.
“Have a lot of friends who are in the medical field and they’ve said that they’re taking disposable,” said Jonathan.
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