Word went down to Alan DiGiovanni, Jacksonville's plant manager. Employees – already stunned by the events of the past few days –
were told the company would produce as many of the respirators as possible. It meant working each day, every day, around the clock.Not one person balked.
This is the story of an American owned company that defies
the corporate stereotype. It's the story of Onslow County residents who worked for 38 straight days without a day off. It's a story about patriotism, pride in America and how even the most ordinary life was affected by
events hundreds of miles away.
But ultimately this is a story of everyday heroes.
* * * * *
Excel Dexter still cannot speak for long about the events of Sept. 11th
without pausing to compose herself. Emotion bubbles to the surface, making her forget what she's saying, causing her dark eyes to glisten.
Like the rest of MSA's employees, Dexter was making respirators when word
came that America was under a terrorist attack. Like the rest of the country, Dexter paused in disbelief, watching as commercial airliners slammed into the World Trade Center.
"Overwhelming sorrow, overwhelming
grief," is what Dexter says she felt when she learned of the attack. Coworker Luvondee Willis said many employees were worried.
"There were people here with family in New York and some had relatives who
actually worked in the towers," Williams said.
Work at MSA continued, but it was increasingly difficult to stay focused. MSA employees, like the rest of the country, felt helpless. They wanted to do something.
* * * * *
Alan DiGiovanni stretches his long legs, crossing them at the ankle as he leans back in his chair. He talks about the Time Magazine cover and how proud the employees were to know they did
something to help the rescue and clean-up effort. But MSA employees had something even more personal at stake on the day New York came under attack – one of the company's employees was inside the first tower when it was
hit.
Judy Colfer, an MSA executive, was attending a meeting on the 55th
floor of the first tower. Colfer, a married mother of two, spent over an hour working her way down the fire stairs of the building with thousands of others. It wasn't until midnight later that same day that she was able to let friends and family know she had survived the explosion.
Giovanni says employees were concerned that one of their own was in the building, but were powerless to help. So they started working out the logistics of making and delivering respirators – masks that would help
firefighters and search and rescue workers keep debris out of their noses and respiratory systems.
"MSA has a history of responding to these types of disasters," DiGiovanni says. The company knew how to gear
up and prepare for the worst.
MSA went into overtime mode. The goal: to make as many of the respirators as possible and ship them to Ground Zero. The expense: all out-of-pocket. MSA didn't make a dime on the material
it shipped north. The company even ate the shipping costs.
* * * * *
"It felt good to know they were willing to take that loss in time of need," Williams says.
The lifelong Jacksonville
resident left to travel to Florida immediately after the attack in order to attend the wedding of her son – an airman in the U.S. Air Force. She drove back to Jacksonville, arriving at 10 P.M. on Sunday night. By 11
P.M. she was back at work.
"No one complained – everyone wanted to do it," Williams said.
Like Williams, coworker Linda Murphy has lived in Onslow County all her life. She laughs when she talks about how –
during her 22 years with MSA – she has never lived more than five minutes from her job. But her face grows dark and her voice softer when she talks about the events of Sept. 11th.
Murphy didn't know it at
the time, but a high school classmate, Beverly Crews, had died in the twin towers.
"Oh man – that really hit home," Murphy said. She adds that once she discovered she knew someone who died in the attack,
she was even prouder of MSA's contribution.
"It was a good feeling, but a sad one – we all knew what those respirators were being used for," Murphy said.
* * * * *
.
"We made over 300,000 of those from Sept. 11th to Dec. 4th," Morton said. Most of them were sent to Ground Zero.
"I never realized before how important my job was," Morton said.
(BREAK IN COPY)
Ben DeMaria lives and works in Pittsburgh. He has been with MSA for many years, employed in human resources.
DeMaria says
MSA is family-owned and has always emphasized what is morally right over what is profitable. He was not surprised at the decision to focus the company's resources on making those masks and getting them to where they
were needed the most.
"After people got off they wanted to come back in after hours and work," DeMaria said. The company took a good hard look at what inventory it had on hand and what it could produce.
Swallowing the cost of distribution and realizing it wouldn't be making any money for awhile, corporate executives still made the decision to forge ahead. All the stops were pulled out. MSA went into overtime mode.
"We immediately started thinking what we could do in terms of helping," he said.
Orders to pull out all the stops went out from Pittsburgh. Jacksonville answered the call.
* * * * *
"We
cleared our shelves in two to three days," DiGiovanni says. MSA sent all it's stock to New York and Washington, D.C., then geared up to make more. The schedule was grueling, but the employees were delighted to be
doing something proactive, something that would help.
"There was a deep sense of grief and loss in the plant that week and I think the employees wanted to put as much of themselves as they could into what they
were doing," he said.
MSA's Jacksonville plant is like a small United Nations. People of every imaginable racial, social, religious and ethnic background work there. DiGiovanni says employees are usually
harmonious, but the week after Sept. 11th there was a special cohesiveness, a closeness and camaraderie that came from knowing they were doing important, something to help.
"Everyone in the plant was
pulling together, packing and shipping every single respirator – I felt so proud," Dexter said. She said friends who were working with the rescue efforts in New York said they saw empty MSA boxes on the scene,
where the respirators had been delivered. Somehow it made the long hours worth it.
"It was the most important thing I've done in my life," Dexter, who was born in the Philippines, said.
* * * * *
After the rush to supply respirators to Ground Zero, life at Jacksonville's MSA slowly returned to normal. The usual job concerns and trials of day-to-day life took over as the driving force behind
employee's lives. But always, the residue of Sept. 11th is there.
Luvondee Willis: "Just like we got up that morning to go to work, expecting to return home – those people did, too. It felt good that
MSA was willing to take that loss in time of need."
Linda Murphy: "The response was very intense and we felt good to know that we could actually do something to help out."
Alan DiGiovanni: "That
day we were all anxious to get home to our families, to reassure ourselves, but the next day we came in ready to get to work, to do what we could to help."
Dianne Morton: "If I never realized before just how important my job was, Sept. 11th
opened my eyes. I make the products that go out, but never saw them being used before. I was proud to be a part of it."
Ben DeMaria: "Jacksonville can be very proud of MSA. They did an extraordinary
job."
Excel Dexter: "I never heard anyone here complain about working long hours – I heard about how good it felt to work those hours, to do something so needed. But no complaints. Not one."
(Mine
Safety Appliances donated thousands of respirators and other safety equipment to the rescue and clean-up efforts from Sept. 11th and paid the transportation and delivery costs itself. In addition, MSA
employees raised $50,000 in donations, which the company matched and then added profits from the sale of "United We Stand" hard hats, for a total of $200,000. The money was donated to benefit the wives and
children of New York City firefighters and police officers who lost their lives on Sept. 11th.)
