I have not added material to this blog in several days. The principal reason has been our attempts to deal with the effects of the coronavirus. My teams at the
Dunwoody - Sandy Springs and
Tri-Cities - Atlanta Airport AlphaGraphics Centers have been hunkering down while still fulfilling Clients’ orders. Our sales may have slowed, but we are still open for business. We have several Clients, including local restaurants and other small businesses, that require signage to reflect their new reality. I am in awe and feel full of gratitude for their decision to continue to show up. However, there is a sense of “Now What?” as our region prepares for the bigger hit from the pandemic.
Last week, we came up with an idea to help with the potential issues local hospitals may face with availability of protective gear for nurses and doctors. We have all heard the challenges other parts of the country have faced with this issue. While production may be ramping up, we thought about what we could do with the materials and sewing capabilities we have.
The easy answer was that we could certainly make protective smocks or aprons, and dividers for makeshift hospitals, from our banner material. We normally produce a ton of banners, blank and printed, for other signs shops as well as distributors. But could we make masks?
This afternoon, Maria, our Production Coordinator in Tri-Cities, worked up a protocol mask made from fabric left over from an old job and string. They looked so good and practical that I alerted members of my network, and in turn they alerted several Atlanta hospital. We have more fabric, but the masks will work better with elastic, so this evening Maria pushed to get going on getting that material. Of course, I said yes.
Obviously, our hope is that our hospitals will be able to equip their nurses and doctors with gear from traditional manufacturers. Yet, we at AlphaGraphics Tri-Cities – Atlanta Airport and Dunwoody – Sandy Springs are ready to do our part to ensure those in the front line in the fight against COVID-19 are protected from the dangerous virus. I suppose that is our answer to “Now What?”