Relief from above

Barb Benson Neumann beamed behind the face shield delivered by the men who had just piled out of a sleek and shiny Quest Kodiak turboprop.

The men hailed from sister companies Bridger Aerospace and Ascent Vision Technologies, based in Bozeman. They flew into the Libby Airport April 16 to donate 20 face shields to Fisher River Valley Fire and Rescue.

The Libby Airport was among several stops the men made that day to deliver face shields to first responders in places that included Hamilton, Stevensville, Missoula, Mineral County, Polson and Boulder.

Ben Keeley, engineering manager for Ascent Vision Technologies, said that Tim Sheehy, CEO of both Ascent Vision and Bridger Aerospace, wanted to help first responders in Montana during the COVID-19 crisis.

“We started up a completely new product line to be able to manufacture high volumes of these face shields,” Keeley said.

Bridger Aerospace is an aerial firefighting company and Ascent Vision Technologies is a defense contractor whose products include imaging systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities.

Neumann, an EMS captain for Fisher River Valley Fire and Rescue, said a fellow member of the organization, Cheryl Roediger, saw a TV news story about Bridger Aerospace and Ascent Vision donating face shields to the Frenchtown Rural Fire District.

Roediger reached out afterward to the companies to ask about receiving face shields. That inquiry led to Thursday’s special delivery at the Libby Airport.

Neumann described the face shields as “first class.”

For healthcare workers and first responders, face shields provide another layer of protection from airborne virus particles when treating patients.

Keeley said April 16 that manufacturing of the face shields had begun about two weeks prior. The initial plan was to produce about 200 shields for first responders and healthcare workers in the Bozeman area, he said.

“As we continued to work through the supply chain and initial manufacturing process, we started to realize the global and the statewide shortage of critical Personal Protective Equipment and decided that we would do everything we could to assist,” Keeley said.

Ascent Vision and Bridger Aerospace quickly moved well beyond producing 200 face shields.

“So far, we’ve manufactured and distributed about a thousand face shields across the state to various first responders and we’re looking at projections of around 5,000,” he said.

Fisher River Valley Fire and Rescue is a volunteer department located between Libby and Kalispell. It operates two stations – one near Happy’s Inn and another about 10 miles closer to Libby. The department has firefighting equipment and firefighters, as well as two ambulances, five medical personnel and a new member completing EMT training.

Fisher River Valley also recently received 10 face shields from the regional emergency management agency. The shields were made by the Lincoln County Road Department, Neumann said.

Thursday’s contingent from Bozeman included K Mita, director of marketing and communications for Bridger Aerospace.

Neumann thanked him after he exited the plane.

“What y’all do is far more important,” Mita said.