Providing Personal Protective Equipment:
The Right Thing To Do WaterShed can be hard to find. Google Maps will tell you you’ve arrived at their building as you drive under the train tracks that go over Portland Road in Northeast Salem. But, if you keep driving, make a few turns, wander behind a small neighborhood and few industrial buildings, you’ll find a bright blue building that houses a key manufacturer of medical gowns in the Willamette Valley. Right as you get out of your car, you’ll be blasted by the fresh scent of tortillas coming from the nearby Don Poncho plant. A small, metal staircase will lead you to a blank glass door. You’ll be buzzed in and asked by a small paper sign to practice social distancing. Put as simply as possible, WaterShed makes rain gear. More specifically, they make semi-custom rain gear for first responders: military, police, and firefighters. As owner Russ Monk puts it, “We innovate.” Russ is as unassuming as his building. He greets his guests with a broad smile under a thin, salt-and-pepper beard. He has the look and demeanor of a humble craftsman. He is Ron Swanson, if Ron Swanson had a couple dozen patents. He and his team at WaterShed have made an art and a science of creating custom rain gear for first responders. But earlier this year, the definition of “first responder” expanded rapidly. Without much warning, the category reached far past those showing up to war zones and fires. Now, first responders included doctors, nurses, medical assistants, nursing home staff, janitorial staff, delivery drivers, and more. And their need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) 4 Enterprise Summer 2020
was immediate and immense. They needed gloves, masks, gowns, face shields, and hand sanitizer. As COVID-19 moved quickly through Oregon’s population, PPE stockpiles quickly dwindled. Soon, hospital staff and those who were most exposed to the virus did not have what they needed to protect themselves.
TIMELINE AND CAPACITY The problem was clear. And to Russ and the entire leadership team at WaterShed, the solution was even more clear. “We’ve always existed to provide equipment to frontline workers. We’ve spent 30 years building systems and processes and fostering a mindset that allows us to respond to something like this. We simply asked the hospital, ‘What do you need?’ Then we got to work.” For Russ, everything hinged on materials. “If you have the right materials, you have options. Without it, all you have are choices.” Just behind the two roll-up doors at WaterShed are 60 rolls (about 120 miles) of soft-blue fabric. To Russ, these rolls are what made their response possible. “I got this material from a supplier in North Carolina. This was just before most of it was bought up; it made it nearly impossible to find. We got it just in time.” Russ went to the leadership at Salem Health and said he had a way to get them custom-designed gowns. And lots of them. Dr. Lloyd Hiebert, who worked closely with WaterShed Regional Manufacturers
