(Birch Hills Fire and Rescue/Facebook)

By Ian Gustafson

Generous Donation

Birch Hills Fire and Rescue receive hand sanitizer from Sask. distillery

Apr 1, 2020 | 12:30 PM

Birch Hills Fire and Rescue received a generous donation from a Saskatchewan-based distillery.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic hand sanitizer has been a hot commodity and has manufacturers scrambling to keep up with the demand.

According to a Facebook post from Birch Hills Fire and Rescue, on Monday they received 12 bottles of hand sanitizer free of charge from Last Mountain Distillery located in Lumsden, Sask.

Deputy Fire Chief Dean Braaten told paNOW they put in an order with them because they were running low on sanitizer for their first responder’s unit.

“I knew that they were working on making hand sanitizer so I contacted them. Being a part-time employee I asked if it would be possible to get some,” Braaten said. “They said that they would ship it out to us as soon as they could.”

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Braaten also works as a part-time brand ambassador at the distillery. He added the donations helps them out as they respond to calls frequently.

Owner of Last Mountain Distillery Colin Schmidt said they had a supply they made for first responders and for people in the health region, so they sent out a small supply. They also sent some to first responders around the province.

They teamed up with Provincial Vodka to combine supplies to be able to keep up with the demand.

“We feel like we’re just kind of doing our part and putting a Band-Aid over this right now until some of the bigger producers can step up,” Schmidt said.

He said he was contacted by several small communities and health regions to put in an order, even though Last Mountain Distillery is not in the hand sanitizer business. He added they’re not looking to profit from this and have donated multiple orders of free hand sanitizer.

They’re currently working on producing another 2,500 litres this week.

“It’s almost like a duty for people like us and for Provincial Vodka to step up. It’s not a huge donation but it at least fills the gap until the bigger producers can start pumping out higher amounts,” Schmidt said.

The Prince Albert Fire Department also received hand sanitizer last week but from a different distillery.

According to a Facebook post, Lucky Bastard Distillers out of Saskatoon also sent them a few bottles.

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iangustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12