DePuy, United Way Provide Masks To Healthcare Workers
May 29, 2020 at 10:46 p.m.
DePuy, United Way Provide Masks To Healthcare Workers
By Jackie [email protected]
United Way volunteers delivered more than 4,000 masks to Parkview Hospital, Kosciusko Community Hospital and Cardinal Services over the last six weeks, according to a news release from United Way of Kosciusko County.
Darren Bickel, president of United Way of Kosciusko County, said 95% of the masks made went to Parkview, KCH and Cardinal Services. They were scrambling for nonmedical masks for various purposes, including having a supply for patients and nonmedical staff. He said United Way worked it out that when the hospitals got the cloth masks, the hospitals would disinfect them.
He also said United Way has a few places with smaller needs that United Way has been able make the connections for masks.
A chance encounter with the post office revealed that letter carriers didn’t have enough masks either. By the end of the week, masks were delivered to every Warsaw post office employee, stated the news release.
When the pandemic started, Bickel said members of United Way met with its board of directors and pivoted what the organization was doing to help where the could, such as helping the schools.
“When United Way asked the community for help, dozens of volunteers came forward. They asked only one question – how can we help?” said Bickel. Overnight, the “United We Sew” initiative was born.
“At first, we just made N-95 covers to extend the life of the essential personal protection equipment,” Sharon Sallot, DePuy vice president of development, said. “But quickly the demand for cloth masks for the nonmedical workers, patients and family members grew.”
United Way was helped by a team headed by Kathy Haddad, marketing manager of the North America hip department of DePuy.
Haddad said her group started in March to make cloth masks. Her group is made up of 10 women and three of them work for DePuy. They all make the cloth masks on their own time.
Haddad said everything was coordinated through United Way for the cloth masks. Bickel said United Way has several partnerships and the one with DePuy is one of their strongest partnerships.
Haddad said she got involved when Sallot identified five groups to help make the masks and reached out to Haddad to help. Haddad was on a work call and mentioned she needed sewers, and later that day some people volunteered.
The fabric was donated by JoAnn Fabrics and the 3,600 yards of elastic was purchased by Warsaw Community Church. Bickel said United Way reached out to Lowery to have the elastic purchased from them, which gave “us a good discount.”
While Haddad said she doesn’t sew, she did help organize the group. If someone needed something, she would go and get it for them.
There was a blue bin by the Key Bank lobby where, if you needed to drop something off or if you needed to pick something up, you would use that blue bin, she said. Finished cloth masks were also dropped off there on Fridays.
Haddad didn’t know how many cloth masks her group made as no one kept track. However, she did say one woman in the group lived across the street from someone who was an EMT who needed to put masks on patients he transported. That woman personally made 90 masks for him.
As far as making more masks, Haddad said the request from United Way is complete, but there is a need for blankets, which will be given out to children from birth to age 6 who are entering foster care for the first time.
Bickel said United Way will probably continue with the partnership of mask distribution. There will be a reassessment point at the end of May to see what the best things to do for the community are.
DePuy also has employees that have been working on creating 3D face shields, along with employees of two different companies.
United Way is working as a go-between for the 3D face shields. Rob Pope, an engineering manager at DePuy, said the group reached out to United Way in Kosciusko, Allen and Whitley counties.
United Way reached out to organizations and clinics about the face shields who needed it.
The group of approximately 27 people from DePuy, L3Harris and Nextremity Solutions are part of a usergroup or club that does 3D modeling.
“When it started, it was kind of slow, but once we got hold of United Way and they started to reach out, it started to pick up,” Pope said. When the group started, they thought they’d make between 500 and 1,000 face shields.
In April and half of May, Pope said the group was making between 100 and 150 face shields a day. The group has distributed over 4,300 to 29 different organizations.
“The demand has kind of slowed down” as no requests have come through for the past week, he said.
In some cases, the group would deliver the face shields to United Way and in others directly deliver them to the organization, whichever worked best.
The group used their own 3D printers at home. The resources were readily available things and the group got them from sources like Amazon, Pope said. The frame is made from plastic filament that 3D printers make and they were able to three-hole the masks on.
DePuy did purchase plastic filament to create the frame toward the end for this endeavor, Pope said.
Pope said one of the tenants of DePuy’s credo is to be responsible for their community.
Members of his group were looking for a way to help when the pandemic started.
“We found a gap we could fill and we did our best to fill it,” Pope said.
United Way volunteers delivered more than 4,000 masks to Parkview Hospital, Kosciusko Community Hospital and Cardinal Services over the last six weeks, according to a news release from United Way of Kosciusko County.
Darren Bickel, president of United Way of Kosciusko County, said 95% of the masks made went to Parkview, KCH and Cardinal Services. They were scrambling for nonmedical masks for various purposes, including having a supply for patients and nonmedical staff. He said United Way worked it out that when the hospitals got the cloth masks, the hospitals would disinfect them.
He also said United Way has a few places with smaller needs that United Way has been able make the connections for masks.
A chance encounter with the post office revealed that letter carriers didn’t have enough masks either. By the end of the week, masks were delivered to every Warsaw post office employee, stated the news release.
When the pandemic started, Bickel said members of United Way met with its board of directors and pivoted what the organization was doing to help where the could, such as helping the schools.
“When United Way asked the community for help, dozens of volunteers came forward. They asked only one question – how can we help?” said Bickel. Overnight, the “United We Sew” initiative was born.
“At first, we just made N-95 covers to extend the life of the essential personal protection equipment,” Sharon Sallot, DePuy vice president of development, said. “But quickly the demand for cloth masks for the nonmedical workers, patients and family members grew.”
United Way was helped by a team headed by Kathy Haddad, marketing manager of the North America hip department of DePuy.
Haddad said her group started in March to make cloth masks. Her group is made up of 10 women and three of them work for DePuy. They all make the cloth masks on their own time.
Haddad said everything was coordinated through United Way for the cloth masks. Bickel said United Way has several partnerships and the one with DePuy is one of their strongest partnerships.
Haddad said she got involved when Sallot identified five groups to help make the masks and reached out to Haddad to help. Haddad was on a work call and mentioned she needed sewers, and later that day some people volunteered.
The fabric was donated by JoAnn Fabrics and the 3,600 yards of elastic was purchased by Warsaw Community Church. Bickel said United Way reached out to Lowery to have the elastic purchased from them, which gave “us a good discount.”
While Haddad said she doesn’t sew, she did help organize the group. If someone needed something, she would go and get it for them.
There was a blue bin by the Key Bank lobby where, if you needed to drop something off or if you needed to pick something up, you would use that blue bin, she said. Finished cloth masks were also dropped off there on Fridays.
Haddad didn’t know how many cloth masks her group made as no one kept track. However, she did say one woman in the group lived across the street from someone who was an EMT who needed to put masks on patients he transported. That woman personally made 90 masks for him.
As far as making more masks, Haddad said the request from United Way is complete, but there is a need for blankets, which will be given out to children from birth to age 6 who are entering foster care for the first time.
Bickel said United Way will probably continue with the partnership of mask distribution. There will be a reassessment point at the end of May to see what the best things to do for the community are.
DePuy also has employees that have been working on creating 3D face shields, along with employees of two different companies.
United Way is working as a go-between for the 3D face shields. Rob Pope, an engineering manager at DePuy, said the group reached out to United Way in Kosciusko, Allen and Whitley counties.
United Way reached out to organizations and clinics about the face shields who needed it.
The group of approximately 27 people from DePuy, L3Harris and Nextremity Solutions are part of a usergroup or club that does 3D modeling.
“When it started, it was kind of slow, but once we got hold of United Way and they started to reach out, it started to pick up,” Pope said. When the group started, they thought they’d make between 500 and 1,000 face shields.
In April and half of May, Pope said the group was making between 100 and 150 face shields a day. The group has distributed over 4,300 to 29 different organizations.
“The demand has kind of slowed down” as no requests have come through for the past week, he said.
In some cases, the group would deliver the face shields to United Way and in others directly deliver them to the organization, whichever worked best.
The group used their own 3D printers at home. The resources were readily available things and the group got them from sources like Amazon, Pope said. The frame is made from plastic filament that 3D printers make and they were able to three-hole the masks on.
DePuy did purchase plastic filament to create the frame toward the end for this endeavor, Pope said.
Pope said one of the tenants of DePuy’s credo is to be responsible for their community.
Members of his group were looking for a way to help when the pandemic started.
“We found a gap we could fill and we did our best to fill it,” Pope said.
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