From the Thursday, April 9 issue of the Memorial Business Journal
Trying to alleviate the shortage of personal protective equipment, funeralOne has developed and created reusable acrylic face shields, which it is making available to funeral directors free of charge.
“Once we heard funeral directors were last in line to get personal protective equipment, we retooled our new, as of yet not open, design center,” said Joe Joachim, CEO and founder of funeralOne. “We have millions of dollars worth of equipment there, so we realigned our priorities the second I heard people were going without stuff. “This is crazy,” said Joachim, “so let’s care about the people who are caring for others.”
funeralOne sourced materials to make thousands of shields. The company designed and improved prototypes – 19 different versions in two days – and is essentially producing them in-house. “We’re covering all of the costs, donating everything, and we’re looking for other people to be part of it,” said Joachim. “We like being team players. We’d like to rally more people together to get behind this. We are creating, sourcing, purchasing, packaging, shipping and even delivering [locally in Michigan] to funeral homes.”
The design center has 15 people working, social-distancing from each other, to create a factory line. “We went from nothing to thousands very quickly.”
When it comes to the mass quantity, Joachim said, the shipping logistics are a lot easier with standard sizes. Currently, funeralOne is offering a standard kit (two reusable shields) and a large kit (six reusable shields) to funeral homes.
“If a firm needs more masks, they can leave a comment and we’ll make sure they are taken care of,” he said. “What we are trying to do is make sure that everyone gets one first. If someone is in a situation where they need more, we have no issue making sure they get more.”
To order, visit http://www.funeralone.com/covid/
This is just one of the ways FuneralOne has been supporting funeral service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is also making webcasting completely free of charge. “Anyone who needs to webcast, we are dropping that to zero dollars during this crisis. Whatever we can do to support funeral directors,” said Joachim.