Common healthcare items, such as cleaning supplies, facemasks and hand sanitizers, are in short supply everywhere because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Robin Standke, an occupational health nurse at Waupaca Foundry Plant 1 in Waupaca, Wisconsin, is keeping her fellow colleagues healthy, though, by making homemade cleaning supplies and individual hand sanitizers, as well as providing personal protection items to employees.
 
The idea first came to Standke after multiple orders for the healthcare department in the last month were either delayed or canceled altogether.
 
Standke then created a chemistry-like station in her office, and with the help of Jesse Spaeth, a safety facilitator at the plant, and Carolyn Moss, a fellow occupational health nurse, made three batches of hand sanitizer, filling 150 bottles for employees. The trio also made and dispersed 300 bottles of homemade disinfectant spray throughout the entire plant to assure everyone had access to the supplies.

Now, team members can avoid using communal hand sanitizer and cleaning solution stations by having individual access.
 
Additionally, Standke has provided all employees a stylus pen to avoid direct contact with touch screens in the plant, such as time clocks. She also sourced homemade masks for all of the in-house nurses and first responders (EMT) so that the face masks currently in stock at Waupaca Foundry can be used for patient care. 
 
According to Standke, the response has been pure thankfulness, and if materials to create hand sanitizers and cleaning solutions stay available, she plans to continue making more for her fellow team members.  
 
“The employees really appreciate it,” Standke said. “It’s just the small, little things that make them happy.”