A manufacturing company from Waterloo, Ont., has donated 28,000 face shields to Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education to help prepare teachers for the return of class this fall.
The Canadian Shield is a company that manufactures personal protective equipment (PPE). The face shields, which the company has been certified to produce, will be distributed through the public sector to protect teachers and educators from potential exposure to the coronavirus or other serious health risks, according to a news release.
“We are thrilled to be working in partnership with Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Education to offer our face shields to teachers and educators across the province,” said Jeremy Hedges, president of The Canadian Shield. “We want to make sure that every teacher going back to the classroom this fall has a Canadian Shield to keep them safe.”
The 28,000 face shields will be distributed to registered teachers in Saskatchewan. Made in Canada with 100-per-cent recyclable material, these shields can be sanitized and reused up to 15 times.
“To ensure schools are a safe place for students and staff, we are using an all-hands approach, utilizing a strong partnership between the public and private sector,” Gordon Wyant, deputy premier and education minister, said in the news release. “The Government of Saskatchewan is grateful to the Canadian Shield for this donation to our school communities as we return to in-class learning this fall.”
Saskatchewan school divisions assessed their needs and submitted their requests to the ministry. Prairie South School Division received 1,000 face shields, while Holy Trinity Roman Catholic School Division received 375.
The donation is part of the Canadian Shield’s national donation campaign that will see 750,000 face shields shipped out and distributed to registered teachers by education ministries across Canada. The monetary value of the donation is $7.5 million.
The Canadian Shield began manufacturing face shields in March at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Canada had difficulty sourcing PPE from its global suppliers. The Canadian Shield made a call to school boards and organizations across Canada for help in 3D printing the original version of the shield to maximize production capacity and protect as many front-line health-care workers as possible. Dozens of school boards from across Canada offered support, enabling the company to donate 20,000 shields to health-care workers in those first critical weeks.
“We are so appreciative of the help we received from school boards and organizations across Canada when we first launched The Canadian Shield,” said Hedges. “This is our way of giving back to the community and supporting Canadian educators.”
Since The Canadian Shield launched in March, it has scaled up from 10 employees to more than 300 and secured a contract with the Government of Canada to manufacture 10 million face shields for front-line and essential workers. The company has also introduced several new products, including cloth and surgical masks. Most recently, The Canadian Shield launched a new line of kids face shields modified to fit children aged five to 12 years old.
Visit www.canadianshieldppe.ca for more information on The Canadian Shield.
