MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. — Local winemakers are stepping up to help distilleries fulfill the urgent need for hand sanitizer.
UVA FUREM Winery in Maple Valley is joining other wineries in the area in providing bulk wine to local distilleries to create hand sanitizer.
"We ended up getting together and coming up with almost 1,000 gallons of bulk wine that we could donate to Kim and Bryan over at Scratch Distillery in Edmonds, and they all were able to turn it into alcohol and then transfer it in to make it into hand sanitizer,” said Jens Hansen, co-owner of UVA FUREM Winery.
Bryan Karrick, co-owner of Scratch Distillery, said the hand sanitizer will be distributed to South Snohomish County Fire Stations and any other first responders who've expressed a need.
“People have wine that is more than they need right now, or we have, you know, one of the beer donations was because, hey, everything stopped at the bar,“ said Karrick.
By the end of the week, Scratch Distillery plans to have 200 one-liter bottles of hand sanitizer ready to be distributed to first responders.
Karrick said he's received calls from other wineries in the area looking to help.
Right now, the focus is on distributed the hand sanitizer to first responders in the area, not personal use.