Pictured left to right: Representing Wadley Medical Center: Shelby Brown, Sheila Key,
Dr. Ronald Exum and Christie Waller.
Representing Brentwood: Mark Trusty, Patricia Bokanyi, and Peter Rye
HOPE, ARKANSAS, June 2, 2020 – Brentwood is proud to partner with Wadley Regional Medical Center in the local fight against COVID-19. The company donated 3,000 reusable face shields to the Hope, AR, and Texarkana, TX, branches of the hospital to protect healthcare workers as the pandemic continues.
Brentwood President, Peter Rye, presented the donation to hospital representatives on Tuesday. He was joined by Executive Vice President, Carl Staples, and CFO, Patricia Bokanyi, on behalf of Brentwood.
"We wanted to protect those working to keep us safe and healthy, particularly in the communities where we live and operate," said Rye. "We learned that Wadley needed personal protection equipment, and we were happy to jump in and help.”
The company said its commitment to help during the pandemic extends beyond the Wadley Regional Medical Centers. Brentwood is building partnerships with hospitals and businesses in the other domestic locations where the company operates – Reading, PA; Lebanon, PA; and Martinsburg, WV – to donate thousands more face shields.
When COVID-19 took hold in the U.S. a few months ago, Brentwood assessed its capabilities and decided to develop the reusable face shield product. The company had never designed or manufactured personal protection equipment, but this was a challenge they were excited to take on.
“Our facilities were already equipped to form medical packaging and injection molded components,” said Walter Banta, Brentwood’s Senior Director of Operations, “so developing a face shield was an easy decision."
The face shield design and tooling were completed within weeks, enabling Brentwood to ramp up production in its Reading, PA, facilities. These include an ISO Class 7 cleanroom and a state-of-the-art injection molding facility.
Several weeks ago, the company received official authorization from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to supply its face shields specifically to healthcare workers fighting COVID-19. This approval falls within the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) guidelines.
Brentwood’s face shields also protect non-healthcare essential workers, tasked with keeping grocery stores, warehouses, and other critical processes operational during this difficult time.
About Brentwood:
Brentwood Industries, Inc., is a family-owned, family-run business, operating in the U.S., India, Thailand, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. For over 50 years, Brentwood has applied plastic technologies to solve unique customer challenges and fostered a culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Today, Brentwood is an industry leader in the development, engineering, and production of plastic solutions for cooling tower, medical, water treatment, transportation, stormwater management, construction, and battery applications.
In the medical sector, Brentwood is a leading manufacturer of custom thermoformed and injection molded solutions for device packaging, trays, components, and housings for imaging and diagnostic equipment. The company’s two state-of-the-art ISO Class 7 cleanrooms are equipped with the latest technologies and certified to ISO 9001 quality standards. With vast design knowledge, forming capabilities, and materials expertise, Brentwood produces functional and aesthetic parts that provide sustainable solutions for end-procedure efficiency.
