“We’re trying to do whatever we can to help people in our community stay as safe as they can in a time like this,” says Matt Schaeffer with Sound FX.

Sound FX in Lewes and Hardwire in Pocomoke City are joining in the fight against COVID-19 by making protective face shields for health care workers facing a shortage of Personal Protective Equipment or PPE.

“Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention and we’re very good at going fast in crises. That’s what we are known for,” says George Tunis, the CEO of Hardwire.

Sound FX specializes in car audio but they saw a need that they knew they could fill. “We just aren’t prepared as a nation so the best thing we can do is supply our health care workers with what we can at least produce to help them,” says Schaeffer.

Meanwhile, Hardwire lives and breathes this kind of situation. “Our company and our company mission is the survivability of human beings. We’ve been an armored company now for close to 20 years. And we’ve always worked on where the problem was,” says Tunis.

Hardwire tells 47 ABC they consulted countless doctors and nurses before landing on a final design. “Face shields, if you are wearing one for 15 hours, it has to be comfortable. It has to cover your face. It has to be stable. It has to be lightweight. It has to be cleanable because they are going from room to room and patient to patient,” says Tunis.

Tunis says it was also important to make sure the shield covers as much of the face as possible while also having a radius that allows for complete freedom of movement when working with patients.

Two local companies, in very different sectors, working towards a common goal: protecting those who need it most.

“We are all in the fight together. We appreciate what our community does for us so this is just us giving back to them,” says Schaeffer.

Sound FX is donating all the shields they make and they actually made their first donation to Beebe on Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Hardwire has supplied shields to Atlantic General Hospital. They hope to make 7 to 10-thousand shields, per day, to be sent wherever they’re needed. Hardwire also tells 47 ABC they’ve hired more people to keep up with the demand, many of whom were laid off because of the coronavirus.

Click here for details on Hardwire’s face shield available for order.