Small idea, HUGE inspiration From one small shop in Connecticut to a national cause, metal nose strips bring people together By / Natalie Bruckner Photo courtesy of The Day There’s an old adage that goes, “mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” When Joe de la Cruz, vice president of the Hillery Company and Local 40 member, cut his first metal nose strips in his custom fabrication shop in Groton, Connecticut, little did he know the ripple effect it would have. “It started as an idea,” he says. “A local nurse from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital asked my wife if I would be able to make 25 aluminum nose strips, like those used on N95 masks, for the masks being made by the volunteers.” The aluminum nose strips are critical to custom-fitting the top of the mask to a person’s face to increase the efficacy of the mask at repeling droplets that could potentially contain or spread illness. The next day, de la Cruz bought two aluminum sheets— enough for 200 nose strips—and decided to post online to see if anyone needed any. 4 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
“In less than a week, we had around 3,000 requests from people all across the country,” de la Cruz says. “We were overwhelmed. I mean, we are sheet metal workers, and were not really sure what to do with this.”
He reached out to Local 40 in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, to explain the situation and see if they could assist. “When Joe contacted me, my only thought was, ‘Let’s get going,’” says David Roche, business manager at Local 40. “As soon as we heard they were getting inundated, we got sheets of metal and started chopping them up.”
As word spread, so did the number of requests, so Roche contacted Paul Pimentel, communications and research at SMART, and asked him to put the message out to the SMART Army. “Paul arranged a conference call, and we all said, ‘Let’s do this,’” Roche says. “It was that easy. In my 17 years as a
