When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the Six Nations of the Grand River Economic Development Corporation drew on its philosophy of community caring and support to help.

The Workforce Planning Board is celebrating the business for their employees being Workforce Heroes.

The corporation’s trust arm, Six Nations Economic Development Trust, created the Emergency Relief Fund to help the community’s on-reserve non-profit organizations purchase Personal Protective Equipment.

Five non-profits shared in $4,500 to buy face coverings, hand sanitizer, gloves, plexiglass barriers and cleaning supplies – supplies they could ill afford otherwise. The Trust invited applications for a second round of funding in December.

“As a community owned development corporation, it is our responsibility to assist where we can, especially during times of uncertainty,” said President/CEO Matt Jamieson.

The corporation is involved in the community in numerous ways, including managing Six Nations’ economic interests, being a partner in renewable energy projects, and operating tourism assets, a business park and bingo halls, and more.

To help, the corporation:

·         Sourced PPE, including 10,000 N95 masks for Six Nations Emergency Service use

·         Converted Chiefswood park into a temporary care facility

·         Offered rent cuts to tenants in its Oneida Business Park

·         The Six Nations Bingo Hall made donations to the local food bank

·         And staff assisted the elected band council with crisis management, including running the local COVID-19 hotline.

A large team of staff working from home used their community spirit, work skills and creativity to help Six Nations tackle the ever-changing, fast-moving crisis.

“We’ve always known our employees were team players, but seeing them pull together during this difficult time was inspiring,” Jamieson said. “They were continuously adapting to the ‘new norms’ and encouraging each other.”

The corporation’s mission for the community include improving social conditions and creating an environment for individuals, families and businesses to thrive. Employees are grateful they’ve been able to deliver on those important goals and give back to the community, Jamieson said.

“COVID-19 has put a strain on individuals and businesses. It is very important to us that we help assist the community through this unprecedented time.”

Visit Six Nations Economic Development Corp.’s website to learn more about the organization.

Norfolk County’s Hometown Brew turned suds into sanitizer as their way to help residents safeguard against COVID-19.

The small craft brewery, located in St. Williams, near Turkey Point, was gearing up for the spring beer season in 2020 when the pandemic hit, forcing it to rethink some plans.

The brewery was sitting on hundreds of cases of beer with more brew fermenting. Since Hometown prides itself on their beer’s freshness, it was worried about some of the suds going to waste.

That’s when the Hometown team of Dusty Zamecnik, Tommy Devos and brewmaster Matt Devos decided to help meet the community’s need for hand sanitizer.

Matt Devos set to work to distill the company’s Blue County beer into 75% sanitizer grade alcohol.

“We all have a role to play during times like this,” Zamecnik said. “We have the ability, the time and the technology to produce sanitizer that was needed.”

Matt Devos put in dozens of hours to switch over some equipment to repurpose the beer and, by trial and error, make sanitizer, mixing in Aloe to make it gentler on the skin.

Large jars of sanitizer were donated to Norfolk Association of Community Living. Hometown customers placing an online beer order had the option to donate smaller bottles of sanitizer to Haldimand-Norfolk Community Support Services. Hometown then matched the value of those donations.

“Our deliveries skyrocketed with the pandemic alone, then once we paired purchases with sanitizer donations, it was full tilt,” Zamecnik said, thanking Hometown’s customers for their support.

Hometown Brew has an “intense sense of pride” that it could help, he said. “Being able to utilize our beer as a vessel of enjoyment as well as a vehicle for community charity was a match made in Heaven.”

Visit Hometown Brew’s website to learn more about the business.

Resilient, creative, generous: all words that describe how Brantford’s Apotex Pharmachem and its employees stepped up in time of need last year.

The company’s Spalding Drive plant produced and donated thousands of bottles of medical-grade hand sanitizer and donated thousands of medical masks when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada.

Apotex is being celebrated by the Workforce Planning Board as one of the local businesses who have shown their employees are Workforce Heroes.

Vice-President and General Manager Jason Fischer knew the firm could play a role in ensuring health-care facilities had the supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) they needed.

Apotex, Canada’s leading producer of generic drugs, donated 1,000 litres of sanitizer to the Brant Community Healthcare System and provided another 1,900 litres at cost. It also donated several thousand litres of sanitizer to hospitals, clinics, health care providers and seniors residences in Ontario and Quebec.

In addition, Apotex was able to source alternative PPE for their own staff, freeing the company up to donate 2,500 N95 masks, including 800 given to Brant hospitals, the City of Brantford and County of Brant.

The local plant produces active pharmaceutical ingredients in powder form, so making liquid sanitizer took the creativity and problem-solving skills of many employees.  Part of Apotex was retooled and a special packaging process set up to bottle the sanitizer, which met Health Canada’s strictest standards.

“Long hours were put in to get this product to the patients/end users,” Fischer said. “Several of our personnel in many departments volunteered and put in extra time to get this done.”

As a health-care company, Apotex’s employees understood the challenges faced by hospitals and frontline workers and wanted to help. That workers could help their own community was a bonus.

“There was an immense sense of pride and accomplishment across the organization to be able to react quickly to the need and deliver PPE that would have an immediate impact in our community and for the front-line health-care workers in the time of greatest need,” Fischer said.

He was impressed but not surprised employees stepped up.

“I have an excellent team here dedicated to the organization and to providing health-care products to patients.”

Visit Apotex Pharmachem’s website to learn more about the company.