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Charlotte Company Donates Masks to N.C., S.C. Police, Medical Workers

Community members and organizations are making masks as healthcare providers struggle to provide enough for staff. It’s a problem in medical facilities throughout the country, multiple news outlets report.

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(TNS) - David Gilreath’s brother-in-law is a doctor in Winston-Salem, N.C, so Gilreath knows first-hand the toll a shortage of face masks is taking on healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gilreath owns TSI Filtration Technologies in Charlotte. For more than 50 years, TSI has produced a variety of industrial air filters. Three weeks ago, the company instead started making washable face masks for healthcare organizations and first responders due to COVID-19, Gilreath said.

“We wanted to do the right thing, help our brothers and sisters out and do what we can to flatten the curve,” Gilreath said.

Community members and organizations are making masks as healthcare providers struggle to provide enough for staff. It’s a problem in medical facilities throughout the country, multiple news outlets report.

TSI is making masks to donate to police departments, nursing homes and healthcare facilities in the region, a release from the company states.

Gilreath dropped off masks Monday at the City of York Police Department and other public safety and medical organizations. Gilreath is a graduate of Clover High School and Winthrop University, according to the release from TSI.

Sgt. David Dover with the York Police Department said the masks are needed as emergency management gets a limited number to disperse to police and fire departments.

“To keep (officers) healthy, to keep them protected is a benefit to not only the police department, but the citizens we serve here in York,” Dover said.

The police department received 200 masks, Dover said. The department is delivering some of the masks to Tender Hearts Ministries and the York Senior Center to give to home-bound, at-risk residents who receive meals from the organizations.

“These donations are such a blessing ... some of our seniors requested that we not deliver groceries to their home because they were afraid we would contaminate them even though we wear gloves and we wear masks,” Ainslee Moss with Tender Hearts said. “So I think to be able to put the mask in the hands of the senior citizens so that there’s double protection ... will make them feel much better about things.”

Moss said the masks will also enable home-bound seniors to take breaks outside.
“We’re very appreciative,” she said.

Elaine Kershaw with the York Senior Center said the masks make a difference.
“We are helping seniors everyday with their meals and now we can help them with the masks, so it’s definitely a blessing,” she said.

TSI has also made hundreds of masks for Holy Angels, a medical facility in Belmont, N.C. that cares for children and adults with intellectual development disabilities and certain medical conditions.
“Every day we’re getting more requests,” Gilreath said. “I feel blessed to be able to do what we’re doing.”

TSI has donated more than 10,000 masks in the Carolinas and West Virginia, Gilreath said.

Want to help?

TSI has to-go boxes of pre-cut material and supplies for community members wanting to make masks for donation to first responders, reads a post on the company’s Facebook page. Residents can pick up the boxes at TSI, 6148K Brookshire Blvd, and drop off masks when finished.
Those in need of masks or who want to help make them should call TSI Filtration Technologies at 704-392-5564.
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