Communities COMING TOGETHER
2020
PUBLISHED BY SOUTHERN LAKES NEWSPAPERS
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COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER • 2020
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Helping out kids in need By Tracy Ouellette EDITOR
It started with a review of the 2018-19 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in the East Troy Community School District and grew into a program to help kids in the district experiencing food insecurity. “At the beginning of the school year we looked at the survey, which is done throughout the state and when we were doing a statistical review some numbers really stood out to us,” School District Social Worker Kim Pluess said. Those numbers were of how many kids at East Troy Middle School and East Troy High School said they were worried about where their next meal was coming from. “We were stunned,” Pluess said. “The survey showed that 28% of our high school students and 40% of our middle school students had food insecurity.” Pluess said the next step was to present the information to the entire staff in the School District. “Jinnesa Pluess, our academic advisor for FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America), took it to them along with one of her classes she teaches and they turned it into a project to stomp out hunger in our schools.” Kim said Jinnesa presented it as part of a research project to
her Family Foods Society Class and after the project the FCCLA students took it over. The creation of the Trojan Battle Bags was the end result of the students’ efforts. The bags contain food items the students can take home, no questions asked. The program also has food available in the counseling office for kids to have throughout the day if needed, again with no questions asked, Kim said. “We went with the Battle Bag because it’s something they could take home,” Kim said. “We ordered athletic bags so no one would know what was in it.” The program is not limited to kids on the free or reduced lunch program, anyone who can identify a need could take a bag, Kim said. “And if a family wanted a bag at the elementary level, parents could contact me and I would bring a bag over to the other school for the kiddo and the teachers didn’t even know what was in the bag. It was just a bag sent home with families,” Kim explained. She added that if a family needed special arrangements to pick up a bag after school, that was also possible. Coronavirus changes As with everything else, in See BATTLE BAGS, Page 11
FROM TOP: East Troy High School seniors Jackson Dedick (from left), Skyler Matson, Quintin Schoville, Ella Rondeau, Alexis Rudderham, Paige Feldmann, Sarah Mangless, Zack Burke, Jordan Matson and Mac Dudkiewicz helped create the Trojan Battle Bags at the beginning of the 2019-20 school year; Family, Foods and Society students wrap Trojan Battle Bag donation boxes last fall. East Troy High School sophomore Connor Paullin is the student who came up with the name “Trojan Battle Bags” and senior Grace Bird created the first logo. SUBMITTED PHOTOS Communities Coming Together
Communities COMING TOGETHER
2020
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COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER • 2020
East Troy High School employs Battle Bags program
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Helping out Pentair does its part to fight COVID-19
By Michael S. Hoey
On a maskmaking mission
By Heather Ruenz STAFF WRITER
Recently, Kim Marden saw a piece on Good Morning, America about a shortage and need for facemasks due to the ever-growing Coronavirus pandemic. That day, she and her husband, Mike, began making masks. “It scared me. Our daughter, Mallerie, is an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) nurse in West Allis so this hits really close to home in that sense,” Kim said. So far, they’ve made and donated 500 masks to numerous places including: 125 to the hospital their daughter works at, 30 to the City of Delavan Police Department, 50 to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, 30 to poll workers for the Town of Delavan, 20 each to hospice nurses in Racine and a hospital in Kenosha and 10 to a maternity ward in
Washington. “The rest have gone to nurses all over the country and people who are high risk,” Kim said. The mask-making project isn’t cheap and while she’s hesitant to ask for help, Kim said they greatly appreciate donations to help cover the costs, much of it for postage to ship the masks around the country. Elastic is also hard to come by and donations of that are also appreciated. She’s a bartender so not currently working and her husband is not allowed to work overtime right now so money is tight. “We’ve spent around $1,700 so far. We have gotten donations and it helps a ton but it’s not cheap,” Kim said. To make a donation, email mmarden2003@yahoo.com or contact Kim via messenger through her Facebook page.
Kim Marden, despite not officially working as she’s a bartender and bars are closed right now, is staying busy making masks to help protect people from the Coronavirus. So far, she and her husband, Mike, have made and donated 500 masks.
Pentair, like many manufacturers across the nation, is stepping up its production of critical products to help fight the COVID-19 virus. The manufacturer is ramping up production of parts needed to make ventilators at its Minnesota facility. Pentair has had a Delavan facility since 2004 when the company acquired the former Sta-Rite Industries facility on Wright Street. Sta-Rite Industries was founded in the 1930s and moved into the current building in 1956. WICOR Industries purchased the company in 1982. Pentair has 120 global facilities and is headquartered in Minneapolis. The Delavan facility manufactures water pumps and water systems including sump pumps, sewage and effluent pumps, jet pumps, centrifugal pumps, submersible pumps and steel tanks. Senior Manager of External Communications, Rebecca Osborn said the facility has been designated as essential and the company continues to focus on meeting the needs of its customers. She said everyone employed at the Delavan facility is still working during the pandemic to make the pumps people still need. “This is a time when everybody needs to come together to help meet the needs for this critical resource,” Osborn said. “It is critical for us to do what we can to provide our customers with the components they need.” Osborn said the Minnesota facility changed over from making several products to making only air filtration components for ventilators, something the facility already produced. She said other product lines have been temporarily suspended at that site. She said the need for the components has been high and the company has done what it needed to do to meet the needs of its customers. The change over to producing only air filtration components required some employees be crosstrained for that product line and the facility’s production schedule has been expanded with multiple shifts being added. According to Pentair’s website, the company has been engineering and making air filtration components for some of the world’s leading manufacturers of medical devices for more than 35 years. “This is an unprecedented time, and at Pentair our focus is on the health and well-being of our employees, our customers, and our communities,” Vice President of Industrial Filtration Dominik Elsaesser stated on the website. “And now, with the pressing need for much larger numbers of ventilators for hospitalized patients, Pentair is responding,” he added.
COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER • 2020
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Making the rounds Boys & Girls Club delivers masks, gloves, books and school supplies
In response to the ongoing challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, representatives from the Boys & Girls Club and United Way made a trio of stops in Walworth County last week to deliver a variety of items. The caravan made its first stop on April 28 at Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn to drop off more than 400 books donated by the Madison Reading Project to support libraries as well as local youth. The books were to be divided up between several libraries in the county including Aram Public in Delavan, East Troy Community, Lake Geneva Public and Matheson Memorial. Staff from most of the libraries were present for the book drop off, with the books to be given away to young readers who checkout library materials. Next on the list of stops was the Walworth County Food Pantry where surgical masks, gloves and several food safety glove dispensers were donated to be shared with pantries in the county. The glove dispensers emit a puff of air, which opens the glove, allowing people to put their hand in the glove without touching other gloves. Pantries to receive masks, gloves and glove dispensers include: Harold Johnson Food Pantry; Walworth County Food Pantry; Elkhorn Food Pantry; East Troy Food Pantry; Big Foot Emergency Food
Pantry; Lake Geneva Food Pantry; Geneva Lakes Family YMCA. Essential provider The final stop for the caravan was the YMCA in Lake Geneva, where 30 backpacks were dropped off. The backpacks contain a variety of school supplies and will be shared with children. As of April 6, the Geneva Lakes Family YMCA, 203 S. Wells, Lake Geneva, is a host facility as an “Essential Provider of Family Care.” As approved by the state and local municipalities and in line with all safety guidelines, the care will be offered to those individuals that have jobs that have been deemed “essential” during the pandemic and are in need of childcare. Children of essential employees include, contractors and other staff in vital areas including, but not limited to, health care, long term care, residential care, pharmacy, child care, government operations, and critical infrastructure such as sanitation, transportation, utilities, telecommunications, grocery and food services, supply chain operations, and other sectors as determined by the department. The Essential Childcare program provides care to children ages 3 to 12 during the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. The cost is $30 for YMCA members and $40 for the community per day. Call 262-248-6211, ext. 26 for more information.
Susan Hughes, of the Walworth County Food Pantry, tries out a glove dispenser donated by the Boys and Girls Club. It sends air into the glove so people can put them on more safely.
Sometimes it’s the simple ideas that grow into the biggest events and that’s precisely what happened in Delavan early last week. Rafael Hernandez wanted to find a way to help people during this trying time. “We are experiencing very challenging times. Many businesses are shuttered or functioning at diminished capacity. People are laidoff, unemployed, or overworked and overwhelmed,” a flyer said. Hernandez planted a seed of wanting to give away 150 frozen turkeys. Thrivent Lutheran donated $500 toward the event and Hernandez was going to make up the difference, if that wasn’t enough money. “Turkey is a great choice to help families in need. It is high in protein and the possibilities for leftovers are endless,” the flyer stated. He said he wasn’t looking for help but when he posted it on Facebook to advertise it, many people volunteered to add on to the donation, beginning with Chris Marsicano’s donation of 150 gallons of milk. “In addition, we are also helping the dairy farmers by including 150 gallons of milk,” it stated. Hernandez said several people donated items, others donated cash, one donated lottery tickets, Noble Insurance donated tote bags to put the items in and Home Lumber donated paper bags, just to name a few. “A loving part of our community has stepped up to help their neighbors by putting groceries together for a meal that will feed their family,” the flyer said. A group of volunteers met April 12, the day prior to pack bags, 175 in all, and then load them into trucks as the turkey giveaway took place at the municipal lot on 7th Street. Hernandez said he was overwhelmed by the response. “It has been phenomenal,” he said. At the bottom of the flyer is a fitting quote by Fred Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
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Fab Lab works to help front line workers Gateway Technical College’s Industrial Design Fab Lab staff members have been busy testing, modifying and producing equipment that can be used by first responders and others on the front lines of fighting the COVID- 19 pandemic. Fab Lab staff members John Zehren and Adam Reed moved 3D printing machines and materials to two alternate locations just as the college shut its buildings in March and have kept busy with creating PPE.
One design that has gained traction and is being used by area nurses is an “ear saver,” or surgical mask tension release band. Medical professionals are now required to wear masks for an entire work shift, which are looped behind the ear and become painful after long hours of usage. Bands are worn around the back of the head and become a place to hook the masks on rather than the ear, taking pressure off the ears while still creating the needed tension to seal the mask on the
wearer’s nose and mouth. The design is approved by the National Institutes for Health. Reed, Gateway’s Fab Lab technician, produced 80 ear savers, to start, for an area hospital and will produce more in the upcoming weeks. Reed said he got the idea for the bands from a family member who’s a nurse, who saw the design on a Boy Scout Troop Facebook site. The troop was producing them for area health care professionals, and she reached out to Reed to see if he could produce them for nurses at her Kenosha hospital. “I thought, ‘Yes, this is something I can do to support area health care workers,’” said Reed. “I ran a couple of tests to make sure I had it right and to see how long it would take. I figured out I could make them for about 11 cents in materials each and make 18 an hour.” Zehren, Fab Lab coordinator, and Reed started their work in late February on two project designs, a mask and face shield, which are being looked at by health care officials to see whether they can be used during this emergency. They continue with their design work on those pieces. Gateway Technical College students use some of the equipment to be donated during a lab training exercise in Spring 2019. The college’s Fab Lab staff is also creating personal protective equipment for area hospitals and healthcare workers. SUBMITTED PHOTO Communities Coming Together
Gateway Technical College in March donated personal protective healthcare equipment from its Allied Health and Emergency Medical Services programs to area healthcare facilities and emergency medical services agencies, which find themselves short of the items as they grapple with the COVID-19 outbreak. “We appreciate the clinical site healthcare providers’ dedication to Gateway and its students, and we are doing what we can to help them protect our healthcare workers at the bedside who are running short on gowns and masks,” said Vicki Hulback, dean of Gateway’s School of Health. “These supplies are needed to decrease their risk of exposure to COVID-19.” At Gateway, this equipment is used by students to train for careers in health care, veterinary science and EMS. The donation includes gowns, masks, gloves, goggles and shields.
“Everyone is short of this equipment now, and I felt we need to be involved and help EMTs, paramedics and local fire departments,” said Tim Williamson, director of Gateway’s EMS programs. “We do have some equipment that we use for learning purposes, but the community need is much greater because of the pandemic. That need supersedes our need for that equipment right now.” Hulback said equipment was donated to the Kenosha Fire Department, Froedtert South, Ascension All Saints Hospital in Racine, Aurora Kenosha, Brookside Care Center and Vista Healthcare. Feeding the hungry Gateway Technical College also donated nearly 400 pounds of food in March from its Culinary Arts program to an area non-profit to help feed those who may be struggling during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Culinary Arts instructor Adam Larkin collected the food from the college’s facilities and dropped it off to the Shalom Center in Kenosha, an organization that serves the low income population of Kenosha County. It included about 100 pounds of assorted cheeses, 15 dozen eggs, 20 pounds of deli ham, 50 pounds of deli turkey, 50 pounds of potatoes and 25 pounds of onions, in addition to other items. “We understand that, during this time, there are people in our communities in need,” said Terry Simmons, Gateway dean of Protective and Human Services. “We knew that we had food that could not be used for the rest of this semester and started to brainstorm on what the best use for that specific food would be to help others. “We already had connections with the Shalom Center and the great work they do to serve families in need and realized that donating it to them would be a way for us to support others at this critical time.”
COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER • 2020
Gateway programs donate to COVID-19 relief
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Area grad helping make improved coronavirus test CORRESPONDENT
According to new analysis by Harvard researchers, COVID-19 testing must be ramped up across the country before the restaurants, bars and other establishments can safely reopen to the Nathan Libbey public. Due to unreliable tests and a shortage of tests, not nearly enough people have been screened for coronavirus, they contend. In order to reopen states safely, according to the analysis, new cases of the virus must be caught to prevent resurgence once numbers begin to decline. Enter Nathan Libbey. A 2001 Burlington High School graduate, Libbey is the Business Development Director at Pathogen DX, a laboratory based in Tucson, Arizona. Libbey works remotely from his Burlington home, where he, along with a host of scientists and other experts, have come up with a new test for coronavirus, just in time to help the country recover from the pandemic. “This was our long-term goal, clinical diagnostics,” Libbey said Tuesday. “We were working on food and ag applications, with probes printed to capture our good friends listeria and salmonella as well as other plant viruses.” “Given the need to test and eventually reopen our economies, schools, and infrastructure, we really didn’t have a choice but to pivot, rapidly.” Libbey said the country wasn’t ready for this pandemic, as the bulk of tests have
• Battle Bags
lower sensitivity and accuracy. In addition, the tests have been limited to people with symptoms, those who’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19 and frontline workers.
future we can, in a rapid fashion, diagnose a sniffle in a matter of a couple of hours. With this data, we can quantify risk as well as better contract trace and, ideally, eliminate a virus before it spreads.”
Higher volume, more people will be tested “We are scrambling to test as many as possible,” Libbey said. “This option, when scaled, will allow for thousands of tests to be performed by one system. We are also in trials of a pooled option, that is we pool together 10-12 samples in one test.” “If it is negative, all in the pool are cleared. If positive, we rerun all samples individually. This would greatly reduce much of the logjam in the supply system, as the chemicals used in each test are in high demand and backordered in many cases.” The test Pathogen DX is creating is a microarray – about 150 small probes (dots) are printed into a dime-sized spot on a standard microscope slide. Each spot has three sets of the same probes, so the test is run in triplicate to ensure high accuracy. Each probe is designed to stick to a target, in this case a virus. If the virus is present in a sample, it sticks to a probe. Slides are then scanned by a computer and if the probe lights up, the sample is positive for the virus. “The amazing thing about using microarray is that we can print several targets on one dime-sized well,” Libbey said. “For our SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), we also have several other viruses printed, including SARS, MERS, and influenza strains. “While we are hyper-focused on looking only for SARS-CoV-2 now, in the
Approval expected soon Libbey said they submitted the test to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization on April 16. The average turnaround has been 15 days on approval. Based on feedback from the FDA thus far, Libbey said they are optimistic they’ll get approval any day. Clinical labs and hospitals are authorized to seek Emergency Use Authorization. “We also are applying the tech to environmental swab samples,” Libbey said. “I’ll be leading a case study later this month looking for virus on hightouch surfaces in the San Francisco Bay area with a facility management firm. Our tech will allow for highly accurate environmental results as well, and this is obviously much less invasive than a clinical sample so it would be offered to others who don’t have a tie to a CLIA lab.” So is this the answer? Will this test go down in history as the one that saved the country from one of the most unprecedented, dangerous viruses of all time? “I am not an optimist by nature, but I do think we have the tech that, if applied properly, can greatly benefit our country,” Libbey said. “I’ve been chasing pathogens around for some time now, and this one is particularly problematic – I believe we can play a big role in limiting its future damage to our health.”
(Continued from page 3)
March, when the schools closed across the state, the program had to adjust to the new needs of the students. “Now it’s just staff who handle the bags,” Kim said. “When we were running it during the school year, several students would be the ones to do the assembly of the bags and the shopping. Now, with corona, it’s just me, other staff have offered help, but it’s hard with no access to building, so it’s pretty much just me.” She added that the district’s food service staff has been helping with the deliveries, “They’ve been just amazing.” While Kim still does the shopping for the bags, one local business is also collecting non-perishable food items for
the Battle Bags. East Troy Lumber owner Steve Lambrechts offered his company as a collection point for donations. “Steve (has been amazing,” Kim said. “When we decided to continue the program with the schools shut done we didn’t know how it would work. How would we get donations? What will that look like? Steve, who is a School Board member, stepped up right away and said people could drop stuff off by him. He just notifies me and says ‘I have food for you’ and I just go and pick it up, it’s great! I just come and pick them up and they load them into my car it’s an amazing process!” With the COVID-19 situation, the program is now using “Battle Boxes”
because they are easier to store and donate, Kim said. “We truly live in an amazing community and the kids who helped create this program are a testament to that,” she said. “This definitely wouldn’t have taken off without the kids and their passion for helping others.” How to help (or get help) Anyone with a need may contact Kim at plukim@easttroy.k12.wi.us. Food donations may be dropped off at East Troy Lumber is at 2018 Beulah Ave., East Troy. Hours of operation are: 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Monetary donations can be sent to the School District.
COMMUNITIES COMING TOGETHER • 2020
Approval could lead to wider testing needed to open economy By Mike Ramczyk
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Local companies bottle hand sanitizers By Tracy Ouellette EDITOR
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, an area business owner realized his company could help out with a desperately needed commodity that was in perilously short supply – hand sanitizer. Andy Gehl, owner of Contract Comestibles in East Troy, has been able to keep his staff on and provide hand sanitizer to a local hospital group. The small-batch food processing plant is putting out the sanitizer as fast as they can get the materials for it into the plant. “I knew we had the equipment and being in the industry long enough that I knew the contact for the raw ingredients, which are, right now, almost impossible to find,” Gehl said. The venture is a two-part operation with Pak Technologies in Milwaukee, which came about through Gehl’s business dealings with Kevin Schuele, chief executive officer at Pak Technologies. “I’m really working for Kevin,” Gehl said with a laugh. “It’s just one of those things that worked out very, very well because you have two people who have known each other for a very long time and each had half of what was needed for this project.
“He does wipes and he has all the contacts to get the raw materials for hand sanitizer, but he didn’t have the ability to bottle it. I do.”
distillery switching gears for it. “They had a lot more to do,” he said. One such distillery recently switched over to produce hand sanitizer. The Waterford Stillhouse, which recently MAD SCRAMBLE received its federal license and isn’t even Gehl said because of the uncertainty of open, is producing hand sanitizer. when the needed materials for the hand “We’re doing this for the community sanitizer will be available and when it will because we can. We want to provide our arrive, plant production schedules have to friends and neighbors with something they be flexible. really need,” owner Tammie Begotka said. “As soon as we hear the raw ingredients Setting up to bottle hand sanitizer are available we fit it in because we know required some work. the hospital is looking for it as fast as they “We had to purchase some additional can get it,” he said. “As soon as a truck equipment and most of it has arrived,” is heading in our direction, we do a mad Begotka said. “Our first round of the scramble and kick out all the hand sanitizer product will be focused on bottling it in we can and then go back to the food bulk in 1 gallon jugs.” business,” he said. Begotka, who owns the distillery with In addition to supplying the local hospital her husband, Brandon Begotka, said their group, Gehl said they have donated hand hand sanitizer is 80% alcohol and they are sanitizer to local municipalities, police actively looking for retail outlets for the departments and others. product. “We give gifts of hand sanitizer to the “We’ve been pretty busy with this,” local town halls where we live and work. Brandon said. “From the time we started Last week during the elections they really this, first getting on the phone with the tax needed it, so it was good we could get them and trade bureau because we didn’t have the some,” Gehl said. build out done, we had to get permission to start. From that day to the first batch was DISTILLERY RAMPS UP only 24 days, it moved really fast.” Gehl said Contract Comestibles After receiving approval, Brandon switching on the fly to bottle hand sanitizer said there was a “steep learning curve” to wasn’t as interesting as a small-town, local See HAND SANITIZERS, Page 14
FROM TOP LEFT: Azaria Kokan works on the line bottling a sauce at Contract Comestibles. The East Troy small-batch, food-bottling plant is also making hand sanitizer for a local hospital group; Brandon Begotka shows off the pipettes donated by the Waterford Union High School science department, which were needed after the distillery’s broke during production of hand sanitizer. The Waterford Stillhouse offers curbside pickup of their hand sanitizer. SUBMITTED PHOTOS Communities Coming Together
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(Continued from page 13)
looking for this for a month and we’re very thankful to have the opportunity to help them,” Brandon said. The Begotkas say it’s their faith that is the center of everything they do and they believe God put them in the position to help others during the COVID-19 crisis. “For us, this is a clear indication that God put us in the position to do this for a reason,” Brandon said. “To just be able to produce this locally is pretty awesome and it never would have happened if we hadn’t decided to open a distillery in Waterford.” The Waterford Stillhouse’s hand sanitizer gallons are $40 each with an additional $5 for a pump. The distillery will also be offering spray bottles of hand sanitizer soon. Drive through pick up is available at 228 E. Main St., Waterford. For more information, find the distillery on Facebook. For more information on Contract Comestibles, visit contractcomestibles.com.
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production. “We do 10-gallon batches at a time, hand mixing and hand bottling,” he said. “It’s time intensive and we’ve been tweaking the process along the way to make it more efficient.” Brandon and Tammie have been working long hours to produce the hand sanitizer, but say it’s worth the effort. “What really motivates us is when we talk to people who are really glad to get it,” Brandon said. “We’re motivated to help out because there’s such a shortage and it’s really needed.” The first day the couple offered the product by drivethrough pickup, they sold out of the 60 gallons in 20 minutes. “We’ve probably sold about 500 gallons at this point,” Brandon said. “That first day, it was just nuts. It’s slowed down since then, but it’s been steady.” The Begotkas are focusing their efforts to supply the local residents who need the sanitizer and local businesses. “Places like the area banks and nursing homes have been
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