Frost River Making Thousands of Pieces of Protective Equipment for Medical Providers at Duluth Hospitals

Frost River will be done with 45,000 face shields by mid-week and will double that soon.

DULUTH, Minn. – Frost River, a Duluth-based company that manufactures soft goods like bags, has stopped production of their regular goods.

Instead, they are spearheading the manufacturing of equipment to keep medical professionals in Duluth safe.

Employees and machines at Frost River are working around the clock to create protection for Duluth’s hospital workers.

Owner, Christian Benson’s wife is in anesthesiologist in Duluth and is the reason Frost River got involved.

The company is working on manufacturing masks out of medical fabric that can achieve 90% protection against airborne particles.

Also, their 48-foot-long cutting table is running 24 hours a day cutting out plastic for disposable face shields.

These shields are designed to be thrown away once the user is potentially exposed to droplets from someone else.

Frost River will be done with 45,000 face shields by mid-week and will double that soon.

“It’s just been a whirlwind it’s going every day it’s making sure that we continue to do everything we can to retool our operation so that we can be producing high-quality out of premium materials meant for medical scenarios out of PPE for our Northland healthcare providers,” said Benson.

Benson also says he hopes once the need is met in Duluth they can expand to help the rest of Minnesota and hot spots across the country dealing with COVID-19.

They aren’t doing it alone, however, other small businesses like Wintergreen are trying to create easily made reusable medical gowns.

They, along with other companies, are collaborating to make sure hospitals can focus on preparing for the COVID-19 surge if it comes.

“It’s our duty and I hope Minnesota remembers this I hope they remember the small businesses that step up to the plate to make quality personal protective equipment immediately,” said Bria Schurke, and emergency medicine physician’s assistant and also the daughter of the owners of Wintergreen.

As the world is changing quickly, engineers from Cirrus Aircraft are also helping Frost River create the best, most efficient ways to make the equipment.

Frost River is also selling and auctioning off goods on a new website from their store to raise funds necessary to keep employees working and creating these potentially life-saving materials.

You can access Frost River’s new website here.

Also donations are being accepted to help the COVID-19 response through Ecolibrium3 here.