Haviland assists in the fight against COVID-19

by jason_cramp | April 8, 2020 8:43 am

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Haviland Inc., a manufacturer of pool and spa specialty chemicals, has adjusted a portion of its manufacturing facility to be able to create hand sanitizer for local organizations in need.

The Grand Rapids, Mich., company will donate a limited amount of the alcohol-based product to critical hospices, emergency health workers, shelters, and daycare centres.

To make this happen, it has converted part of its Kalamazoo, Mich., operations to manufacture a gel-style hand sanitizer. The company’s team has used their creativity to produce up to 1892 L (500 gal) per week of sanitizer packaged in 18.9-L (5-gal) bulk containers. The first batch was delivered on March 27 to several community organizations in critical need including Wedgewood Christian Services in Grand Rapids, a non-profit organization that provides services to at-risk youth and families providing housing and care.

“I teared up when the large containers of hand sanitizer were delivered as it meant our staff could fill their empty bottles,” said a spokesperson from Wedgwood Christian Services. “We could not be happier or feel more blessed. This is one of those little-big miracles that we can’t really ever know the magnitude of its reach. We now have 70 clients and 200 essential staff members that are safer.”

According to Haviland Enterprises vice-president Meg Post, the local demand is more than 3785-L (1000-gal) per week. As a result, the company is identifying the organizations for donation in West Michigan that don’t have access to the federal stockpile or national procurement organizations including local EMS, fire, hospice, retirement centres, daycares, shelters, and similar organizations.

Post has volunteered to be the point person on all hand sanitizer requests and can be reached at megp@havilandusa.com.

“We are so pleased to be able to help community organizations with the most critical need,” said Post. “Unfortunately, since this is not our primary business, we are not able to sell or give away any product to customers because of the urgent need in our community.”

In addition to providing these weekly batches of hand sanitizer, Haviland is also sourcing, packaging, and distributing raw materials that can be used by local distilleries to convert locally produced ethanol into hand sanitizer.

“We learned about the efforts of local distilleries that have been doing their part to produce hand sanitizer to those in need and, therefore, used our industry connections to help them source the materials they required to continue with their amazing efforts,” said the company’s marketing manager, John Bereza. “This is an incredible team effort to help those in our community who need it most and we are happy to be a part of it all.”

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/news/haviland-assists-in-the-fight-against-covid-19/

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