Letter to Editor | Remember that quick hand sanitizer availability?

||| FROM MORGAN WEST |||

It’s been several months since our family distillery produced hand sanitizer during the early days of the COVID pandemic and quarantine, but it’s a good little story, and it shows how much Rick cares for this community.

In mid-March, when the risks of the virus were becoming clear, the FDA granted emergency authorization to craft distilleries to manufacture hand sanitizer. Our family’s distillery is very, very small, but we thought we could help supply sanitizer to our island community. We halted production of whiskey and gin, and dedicated all our equipment to producing hand sanitizer. Making hand sanitizer is relatively easy, but finding fermented spirits like beer and cider is more of a challenge. Thanks to the selflessness of Island Hoppin’, Boathouse Ciderworks, Lotioncrafters, Anacortes Brewery, and others, we had plenty of alcohol to distill.

The next challenge was distributing the finished hand sanitizer to those who needed it. Full disclosure: I don’t live on the island. My parents have lived on Orcas for decades, but I’m not from here and I don’t have the lay of the land. While my dad was making hand sanitizer, I went looking for efficient ways to get it to the community. It struck me that the pharmacy would be a good place to start. I walked into Ray’s and spoke with the staff there. I did not know then that Rick was a Councilmember.

Rick wasn’t at Ray’s when I walked in, but he called me within minutes and expressed his unhesitating desire to get involved with the hand sanitizer project. I made it explicitly clear that the hand sanitizer we were making was to be free to the community. Rick was all in. He bought hundreds of small bottles. He coordinated with Jacob from the Market and Regan to find more beer for us to distill. One of my few good memories from that dark time is Rick coming up the hill to the distillery after 10pm on March 22nd with five kegs of beer for us to distill. He was quite literally working through the night to support the production of hand sanitizer for his community.

We were able to make around 150 gallons of hand sanitizer before commercial sources of supply began returning to the shelves and we felt that it was safe to wind down. Much of what we made went to first responders and essential workers on Orcas and around the County. I’m not shy about saying that I am proud of this effort. I’m proud of my dad, who didn’t blink at completely retooling his own business to keep others safe. I’m proud of Nate and Becca, Libby, Jacob, Regan; and others who leapt into this project because they care about their neighbors.
And I’m proud of Rick. He was plenty busy with his work on the Council, but he threw himself into sourcing the raw ingredients we needed to make hand sanitizer. He paid for bottles out of his own pocket. He coordinated distribution, all while we worked the stills, making the hand sanitizer as fast as we could.

Like I said earlier, I’m not a resident of Orcas. I don’t vote here. All I can do is tell you about what I remember about what happened in March of this year, and give a little insight into what kind of person Rick is.

Rick, we were very busy during those days, so I’m not sure I ever said this to you, but thank you. Thank you for your selflessness and help with the hand sanitizer. More than that, thank you for your dedication to the health and safety of your friends and neighbors.