CONGRESSWOMAN ELISE STEFANIK
CHAIRWOMAN
Alaska Airlines is doing its part to help healthcare workers in Alaska and the lower 48 get masks. Last week, Alaska Airlines flew materials that will be used to create 210,000 hospital-grade masks for caregivers at Providence’s 51 hospitals across the western United States.
At least two small businesses in Alaska are retooling their operations from making things like custom car or gun parts, to producing face shields for protecting healthcare providers and printing the long swabs needed to test for the virus.
Alaskans are coming together to help the medical community through what health officials are calling an unprecedented pandemic in modern history. Everyone from sewers to brewers to the University of Alaska itself are stepping up to help out through whatever means possible.
Doctors and clinic workers at the Anchorage Pediatric Group, volunteers at the Bread Line and firefighters and other first responders have all ordered masks and received shipments. Some nurses have also approached him individually asking for the protective gear.
Shawn McDonough runs Frontier CBDs in Homer, but his background in chemistry is allowing him to lend a much needed service to his regular vendors. Teaming with JKD Brands – the company that handles most of the labels and packaging for the state’s marijuana industry – McDonough has started manufacturing bottles of hand sanitizer for the purpose of in-store use at local cannabis shops.
Hoarfrost Distilling is using their knowledge and equipment to make hand sanitizer to give out free to the Fairbanks community.
Breweries and distilleries have been quick to respond — creating their own sanitizer out of a byproduct of their booze-making process. Now, one Juneau distillery has gone from serving cocktails to serving its community in a different way.