When the Coronavirus started making headlines, people bought up all the surgical masks, hand sanitizer, rubber gloves and cleaning supplies. And toilet paper, too, for some reason. You still can’t find any of those things at the store, unless you happen to be there at the moment they are restocking them.
That’s the ugly side of this pandemic. People fighting over toilet paper and stealing stuff out of other people’s grocery carts (I’m talking to you, lady who stole my refried beans). But there’s a beautiful side, too, evident in the many people who are doing everything they can to help others.
Some of that help came in unexpected forms. Almost as soon as word got out that there was no hand sanitizer left on the store shelves, the distilleries around the state started figuring out how to make it. Pine Bluffs Distilling, Backwards Distillery in Casper, Koltiska Distillery in Sheridan, Chronicles Distilling in Cheyenne, Melvin Brewing in Alpine, Wyoming Whiskey in Kirby, and Jackson Hole Still Works and Grand Teton Distillery in Jackson are all working on helping us keep our hands clean. And many of those distilleries are donating the hand sanitizer to their communities. That’s pretty amazing.
Other manufacturers have switched gears, too. The hockey equipment company Bauer stopped production on some of its hockey gear so it could make medical shields instead. And the RV company THOR Industries, which owns Airstream, Jayco, Keystone and other RV brands, has donated a bunch of RVs for use as mobile medical clinics.
It’s great to see all the help people are lending each other during this time.
Stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy. We’ll get through this together.
