#InThisTogether: 14 MAY 2020

With everything that’s going on during the COVID-19 crisis, we want to share stories about what Cook people are doing during this difficult time. All around the Cook world, we are #InThisTogether, and we would love to hear stories about how you and your coworkers are stepping up to make a difference. If you have a story to share, please email us at BlogEditor@CookMedical.com.

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The man behind the masks

Written by Ally Stanfield, an Editorial Content specialist in Corporate Marketing and Communications.

At Cook, a lot of the people we work with often become our friends, and they even start to feel like a part of our family. For Dustin Branam Reinhold this has definitely been the case while working as a stock associate at the Americas Delivery Center (AMER DC).

“While I still don’t know everybody’s names, these are people you go and see every day. We have shared so many experiences together, like working on orders and helping each other through personal hardships and celebrations,” Dustin said. “The people I work with aren’t just coworkers to me, they’re my family.”

And these same family-like ties helped inspire Dustin and his family to be as supportive and helpful for his AMER DC coworkers as they could be during such trying times.

An idea that meant a little bit more

With the ongoing need for masks during the COVID-19 (C-19) pandemic, Dustin’s wife, Lauren, had the idea to make masks and provide them for free to people who might need them. Lauren and Dustin discussed the possibility of providing masks to hospitals and medical providers around Bloomington, until they came up with an idea that meant a little more to the both of them.

“We wanted to try and help some of the people I worked with to help them feel safer at work and out in public,” Dustin said. “And a big thing for us, is that we wanted to help Cook as a company to continue to provide medical supplies for hospitals and patients that need them.”

Dustin checked in with his coworkers to see what they thought of the idea. Around 40 employees, almost half of the employees at the AMER DC facility, really liked the idea and asked to be added to the list for a free mask.

“I hadn’t really been expecting that so many people would be interested, but it meant a lot that they would want to wear these masks,” Dustin said.

“Wearing masks is a lot about protecting everyone else around you and helping prevent the spread of the virus, and I just think it is really great to see that from the beginning, my coworkers really care about each other and preventing the spread of COVID-19,” he continued.

Helping others however they can

With a mission in mind, Dustin and Lauren set out to buy supplies and start making masks. However, due to Dustin’s limited knowledge of how to sew, and their young son’s teething debut, they were strapped for time to sew. That is, until Lauren’s mother, Cindy, asked if she could help and offered her sewing skills to their COVID-19 cause.

Since then, they have been able to make and distribute over 35 masks to Dustin’s coworkers, with built in pockets for air filters and elastic straps to hold the masks in place.

“Knowing how much my coworkers help Cook, and how much Cook helps so many different communities and people, it really means a lot to my family to be able to help them all just a little bit more in this small way,” Dustin said.

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