Bridger Aerospace provides face shields for first responders
Barrett Farrell, Chief Bridger Aerospace Pilot; Steve Temple, Mineral County Airport Manager and Chief of the Superior Volunteer Fire Department; Ben Keeley, Engineering Manager; Ben Little, Logistics; K Mita, Director of Marketing and Communications; Donna Richter and Julye Miller, West End EMTs and Volunteer Fire Department members stopped for a photo last week after Bridger made the trip to Superior to donate 250 facemasks for first responders in the county. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
West End Volunteer Fire Department’s Donna Richter models a face shield delivered by Bridger Aerospace last week. The COVID-19 pandemic created a nationwide shortage, including for first responders. Bridger made and donated thousands of masks to rural departments across Montana. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
Toilet paper was the first item the United States ran low on during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hand sanitizer followed along with paper towels. Then masks of all shapes and material nearly ran dry for medical facilities. Then the general public could not find them.
All of a sudden face shields that protected the full face were in high demand and this is where Belgrade-based Bridger Aerospace jumped in to help.
“The transition to designing and building face shields wasn’t too far away from some of the products we develop daily,” said K. Mita, Director of Marketing and Communications.
Bridger Aerospace is an industry leader in aerial wildfire management using next-generation technology. They are the only full-spectrum aerial firefighting service provider in the United States and are headquartered in Bozeman since they began in 2015.
Ben Keeley, Engineering Manager, said their CEO wanted to help the state.
“We have the five key materials in house, so we have taken a few employees on less critical duties and formed an assembly line where we are producing 200 face shields a day,” Keeley said. “Our plan is to introduce injection molding into the process which will increase the daily output to 1,000. Yet the military and our other customers will not notice a change in the services we provide them.”
A Kodiak 100 plane flew a small team of employees to deliver their face shields to first responders who had requested them with stops in Hamilton, Stevensville, Missoula, Mineral County Airport, Libby, Polson and Boulder.
Donna Richter, Emergency Medical Technician and member of the West End Volunteer Fire Department, along with co-worker Julye Miller were on the tarmac in Superior when they landed.
“We are so grateful to Bridger Aerospace for donating these face shields. We’re a small volunteer fire department with few resources and we rely on grants and donations from the public.”
They plan on sharing the few extras they ordered with the St. Regis Volunteer Fire Department. A total of 250 face shields were delivered with assurance that more can be made if needed, and quickly.