One of two retro refrigerators donated to hospitals by Elmira Stove Works, which also provided PPE funds and vendor discounts for frontline workers.
By Alan Wolf, YSN
Elmira Stove Works, which has been making vintage-style appliances since 1975, is stepping up to the plate to aid cross-border healthcare workers during the health crisis.
Citing the more than 1,600 nurses who travel daily between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, the Canadian-based business has launched a “Goodwill Ambassador” program to benefit healthcare workers and first responders in both countries. Under the initiative, Elmira is providing a Northstar retro fridge plus its equivalent in cash to two hospitals: Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor, and the DMC Harper University Hospital in Detroit.
According to Tony Dowling, Elmira’s Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, “The fridges will go into nurses’ lounges in the hospitals and will hopefully bring some small joy and relief to these tireless heroes as they perform their shifts among some of the most challenging conditions imaginable.”
He added that the cash donations are being earmarked to purchase much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) that will “help protect healthcare workers and, ultimately, those in their families and community.”
The vendor, a privately held, family-owned company headquartered in Elmira, Ontario, also extended a discount through June to healthcare workers and first responders on its expanded line of “circa-1850” and mid-century ranges, refrigerators, microwave and wall ovens, range hoods and dishwashers.
“While it’s not possible to donate fridges to every hospital on the continent, we can at least give the healthcare workers and first responders who are putting themselves in harm’s way recognition through reduced pricing,” Dowling said.
