FROG LAKE - “It all started from how I could make the Lakeland a little safer.”
Jacob Faithful said the idea to set up a mask-making facility in Frog Lake First Nations for his company, Young Spirit Supplies, was all about him being able to do something to keep his parents, knowledge keepers, and members of the Lakeland healthy.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, the virus doesn’t have any sympathy for anybody. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, and because of that, it’s scary,” he told Lakeland This Week.
According to Faithful, Young Spirit Supplies is the first to have a manufacturing plant of this nature in a first nations community.
The manufacturing plant is located at the Frog Lake Health Centre, where 12 employees make 40,000 surgical face masks every day.
“It seems like a lot, but some manufacturing plants out there in Canada have the ability to make millions of masks per day,” Faithful noted.
He added, “It’s (significant) for a small operation. It’s something that was proudly attained within the last couple of weeks. We’ve been training in our manufacturing plant since March 3, and fast forward to April 1, we obtained the skills to be as efficient as 40,000 masks a day.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic started in Alberta, Faithful was concerned about what getting the coronavirus could mean for the elderly community in Frog Lake and the surrounding area.
“I thought of our elders and knowledge keepers of our traditions being exposed to this virus and the damaging effect it could have on our nation and all of our future as far as traditional knowledge and things of that nature,” he explained. “That’s why I wanted to bring it home, I felt it was something that I needed to do for our community and the people around Bonnyville, Cold Lake, Lloydminster, and the surrounding municipalities, around Frog Lake, because everybody knows we go and do our shopping in these communities and they’re just as important as the neighbour down the road or my parents. We’re all more connected than we know.”
The mask manufacturing plant is one of the many branches of Faithful’s business.
The name for his company came from his singing group, the Young Spirit Singers. They were given their name by elders and were told to sing to the young people within the first nations communities that need to continue their traditions and cultures. Over the years, the group has won many accolades and even represented the Lakeland at the 2018 Grammy’s when they were nominated in the Best Regional Roots category.
Faithful said he launched Young Spirit Supplies in Sept. 2019 as a branch of the singing group. He started by selling janitorial supplies, making merchandise for the Young Spirit Singers, along with other groups or organizations who were interested, and also acted as a consultant for what schools could do with their musical curriculum in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba when it came to Indigenous content.
When the coronavirus came to Alberta at the beginning of 2020, his customers purchasing janitorial supplies started asking for disinfectant, PPE, masks, face shields, among others.
“At that time, all of the supplies that I purchased from Alberta, Ontario, and the United States were completely out of stock,” Faithful recalled. “They couldn’t supply to small companies like mine. I was stuck with telling the nations that were purchasing from me ‘I don’t have anything for you of that kind.’”
Faithful got on the phone and started calling companies in Malaysia, Germany, and China trying to find what people were asking him for because "I felt as though I had a responsibility to help the nations with this problem of supply."
The businesses were willing to sell items Faithful was looking for to him, but some required him to buy orders up to $100,000.
Once he agreed to their terms, Faithful started receiving shipping containers full of items that would help people be safe.
“Before they even got to Canada, they were already sold to these nations and I was able to help them when the government couldn’t help them,” Faithful expressed.
While he was on his worldwide hunt for products, he met a business owner by the name of Alex Dugal. Dugal is the CEO of a company called Viral Clean, which is a medical-grade mask-making business based in Ottawa.
Dugal approached Faithful about creating a manufacturing plant instead of purchasing masks from other companies. Faithful was reluctant to the idea at first as he would have had to have a manufacturing medical license and be registered with Health Canada, which would have taken a while to get.
The two struck up a deal that saw Young Spirit Supplies operating under Dugal’s license and becoming a part of the Viral Clean brand.
When Faithful found a spot to open up shop in Frog Lake, employees from Viral Clean helped them set up their machines and off they went.
Orders for Young Spirit Supplies have been increasing ever since they got some national media attention. Faithful said he’s in the process of getting another machine to help them keep up with the demand.
“As soon as the new machine arrives, we’ll have the supply and we’ll be able to help the Lakeland, Bonnyville, Cold Lake, and Lloydminster.”
