Candle company now working to produce 10,000 face shields

MILFORD - “I don’t know that any of us imagined acircumstance like we are in now,” said Rod Harl, president and CEO of AleneCandles in Milford.

As first responders and health care facilitiesthroughout the nation continue seeking personal protective equipment in lightof the COVID-19 pandemic, Harl said his company could not sit by quietly. AleneCandles explored different ways to assist, and ultimately determined that itcould produce plastic face shields to protect doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers. 

“Our engineers worked on procedures on how todo the assembly, so everyone had clear work instructions. It did take a littlebit of hands-on training for our supervisors, but once we had it going theywere able to engage in the manufacturing process,” Harl said on Tuesday.

The Milford facility is utilizing a faceshield design from Johns Hopkins University, and has secured raw materials fromThermoformed Plastics of New England in Biddeford, Maine, which has donated thesupplies. Production began Monday at Alene Candles.

However, the company ran out of some necessarysupplies and was forced to wait until Tuesday afternoon to resume its assemblyline once additional supplies arrived. It expects to donate 10,000 face shieldsnext week to emergency workers and health professionals in New Hampshire andMaine.

As Alene Candles continues to pay itsemployees even though production of candles has stopped, Harl said about 20workers arrived on Monday to volunteer their services to make the face shields.Knowing there is a critical shortage of personal protective equipment, severalemployees want to help out and do something for the greater good of thecommunity, he said.

Joshua Rowsey, a process technician at AleneCandles, said his fiancé currently works as a health unit coordinator in theemergency room at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua; both of herparents, who are retired from the medical field, are now back at work.

“This face shield project allows me to giveback as well,” said Rowsey, adding he was ready to get out of the house.

“I've been home from work for a week and I wasgetting bored,” he said. “I’ve finished the projects I had to complete at home.This was a good opportunity to get back to work.” 



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