In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic former Calgarians are stepping up to provide potentially life-saving equipment to front-line workers in the U.S.
“It’s chaos, it’s crazy down here for sure,” Alberta expatriate Zakary Pashak said. “The pandemic is hurting Detroiters because they’re dying. We’re losing family members and friends.”
In 2011, Pashak moved from Calgary to Detroit to open Detroit Bikes, a bicycle manufacturing business in the heart of motor city.
But recently Pashak has discovered his business connections in China are also useful when it comes to protecting Americans from COVID-19.
“I have a really good sourcing agent that I work with there who I trust,” Pashak said. “He’s been driving all around China to these different factories and standing in line for eight hours to try and have a meeting with the president of the factory.”
“It’s incredibly challenging right now, it’s like the wild west of the medical game.”
Pashak said he already received his first shipment of KN95 masks and is expecting tens of thousands more to arrive in the coming weeks.
“I’ve placed orders for about 350,000 masks,” he said. “100,000 of those are going to go to the city of Detroit, so that’s going to people like police and firefighters.”
The 39-year-old business owner added he’s not doing the work to make a profit and at this point is just trying to cover his expenses.
“I just think the free market is not the right solution for a pandemic.”
In Pennsylvania, Allegheny College assistant professor Byron Rich is turning a now empty campus into an opportunity.
“In my lab I have 3D printers and laser cutters,” Rich said. “I was thinking about how we have this beautiful facility just sitting idle.”
Along with the college, Rich has banded together with a group of local manufacturers that are now producing face shields.
“The face shields that we’re producing are recommended by the National Institute of Health down here,” Rich said. “The doctors that we’ve already had it delivered to have been delighted.”
“It’s been really horrifying to watch so many front-line workers go without necessities.”
About 200 face shields have been made but Rich said a new streamlined design could see as many as 1,000 produced weekly.
“Once our town is taken care of and the surrounding small hospitals we’d be happy to start providing these to whoever needs them.”
Rich said currently, the face shields are free.
“Luckily for us the college and the local manufacturers have been amazing and they’ve been funding it all so the hospitals aren’t out of pocket for anything.”
The 36-year-old said the next step for Meadville manufacturers is for them to try to create the highly coveted medical grade N95 respirator masks.
Rich said with each passing day the reality of the pandemic becomes more clear.
“We’re right between these big cities of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and then Buffalo’s not too far away, so it’s only a matter of time.”
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