Author: Staff

Social Distancing protocols and “Safer at Home” measures have been devastating to many industries, particularly Milwaukee’s public arts. With no audiences to perform for, no sets to build, and no costumes to assemble, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater has spearheaded an effort to produce masks to aid frontline workers. The Rep partnered with First Stage and Milwaukee Ballet to leverage their combined resources to make masks and face shields for frontline workers at Children’s Hospital, Froedert, and the Medical College of Wisconsin. So far the organizations have donated over more than 15,000 pieces of PPE, with weekly deliveries ongoing thanks...

Rebel Converting, a Saukville-based manufacturer of hospital-grade disinfectant wipes, is tripling its initial donation of face mask kits in Wisconsin, and through the MaskUpMKE program will help deliver several million to those in need. After learning of the shortage of masks nationwide and how it was affecting Milwaukee, Thaddeus Kryshak, a recent graduate in engineering and physics from the University of Miami, spoke to his father Mike Kryshak, owner of Rebel Converting, about how they might be able to develop face masks from the materials that the company was already using in its production process. “The same fabric that...

Tonit Calaway and Judge David Swanson, along with Major League Baseball Commissioner Emeritus Allan H. “Bud” Selig, came together with Pete’s Fruit Market on April 23 to surprise customers with free groceries. The generous donation of $20,000 by the three individuals provided families that shop at Pete’s Fruit Market on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive with groceries and other necessities to help them during the harsh social and economic conditions brought on by the coronavirus and social distancing measures. “There is so much uncertainty and anxiety in the community right now as families try to job loss, bills,...

Milwaukee County Parks announced on April 27 that the July 3 Lakefront Fireworks have been cancelled for 2020 because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and the event will not be rescheduled this year. In lieu of the fireworks celebration, American Family Insurance will make a donation to the newly established Milwaukee Parks Foundation. “We’re obviously disappointed for the many Wisconsin residents who have made the lakefront fireworks an Independence Day tradition,” said Judd Schemmel, American Family Insurance associate vice president of community investment and partnerships. “However, the continuing uncertainty of the pandemic and concern for the health and safety...

Following the disclosure by officials that the number of confirmed cases at Milwaukee County House of Correction rose to 103 and in the Dane County Jail to 21, a new data model showed that COVID-19 could claim the lives of approximately 100,000 more people nationwide than current projections stipulate if jail populations are not dramatically and immediately reduced. The findings indicate that, even if communities across the United States continue practicing social distancing and following public health guidance, they will still experience much higher death rates if no substantial action is taken to reduce jail populations. “These numbers confirm...