DAVENPORT, Iowa — Grace Engineered Products is engineering a new product at its facility -- P.P.E for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.
In just the last week, the company has made more than 3,500 face shields for local hospital workers and first responders.
"If you use a face shield, you get more uses out of your N-95 masks," Owner Drew Allen says. "Those masks are so short supply, so if you extend the life of the mask, chances are you'll have a better outcome for hospital workers."
The company hired a couple of its employees' teenagers to work at Grace Engineered Products.
"It's a bad time, but it feels good to help people that need it," Kyle Dalk says.
Kyle would normally be in class at Davenport Central High School, but since schools are closed, he now has extra free time to help out and make some money.
"If I wasn't here, I'd just be home playing video games," Kyle says.
He and a few others teenagers are now focused on face shields, which are mostly assembled by contractors working from home.
We have to quality check them, to make sure everything is good and they're ready to go," Kyle says.
With thousands of face shields are ready to go and more on the way, hospital workers and first responders can come into Grace Engineered Products to pick some up for free.
"As a former nurse, my heart goes out to the nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, dealing with this terrible crisis at hand," Owner Jane Allen says.
The Allen family hopes to reach as many of them as possible.
"If you're a frontline worker or emergency response person and you think you need these to protect yourself, we wanna support that," Drew says.
Healthcare workers can stop by Grace Engineered Products in Davenport, off of Kimberly Road and Eastern Avenue, during normal business hours to pick up three face shields.
The company is filling orders right here in the Quad Cities, and has new orders in Ohio and Michigan.