Industrial Strength: Brushing Off The Snowy Winter Commute
It seems that everyone in this part of the country left work at exactly the same time once it began snowing, but it snowed too hard and too fast for any of the poor slobs to make it home in anything less than twice the time it normally takes. We heard reports of people spending up to seven hours driving between Worcester and Boston (from a disgruntled WBJ employee).
Flake Facts
But no matter how long it took to get home that afternoon, most people rely on one, very important tool to help them drive in foul weather: the snowbrush. We brush off our windows and windshields before heading out. If chunks of frozen snow get wedged between our tires and mud flaps, we use the snowbrush to break them up. If your windshield is too icy to brush or scrape, you can beat on it with the hard side of a snowbrush.
And there's a company in Worcester that makes snowbrushes called the SnoBrum in a very interesting way.
Angel Guard Products Inc. assemblies the SnoBrum in a rather ugly building at 70 James St. in the city, and has done so since the company was established in 1991. The plastic components are molded, using molds owned by Angel Guard, at a couple of different plastic injection molding facilities here in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire. The complete brushes are assembled in Worcester by people with physical or mental disabilities from the Center of Hope, which is based in Southbridge.
Angel Guard only has about seven full-time, year-round employees, but during the winter months, that number swells to as many as 50 with the help of the folks from Center of Hope, and in the off-season, Angel Guard employs about 15 from the center.
And snowbrushes aren't the only thing Angel Guard makes. If things really go sideways for you out on the snowy, icy roads, the fire department or other rescue personnel will probably be using Angel Guard products to rescue you.
Angel Guard makes something called the Rescue Alive, and it's what rescue personnel will be using to save you when you fall through thin ice. It's almost like an outrigger for rescue personnel. By distributing the weight of the rescuer over a wide area, he or she can run over thin ice to a person in need. If the ice breaks, the Rescue Alive can be paddled. The Rescue Alive is much faster than crawling or swimming to a victim.
If a victim has sunk to the bottom of a body of water, Angel Guard makes what it calls Water Rescue Jaws, which are designed to reach down, probe around, grab victims and pull them out of the water.
The company is moving from James Street, but is staying in Worcester, and has bought a newer, more attractive building close to the airport.
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