Wesley Hendrix, a graduate of Ogeechee Tech’s Radiologic Technology Program, has utilized his personal business to meet the needs of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shortages across the state.  

Most of his life Hendrix can remember working with his hands, it has always been a passion of his. Alongside his full-time job of running an Imaging Center, woodworking was a hobby that quickly developed into the business he and his wife now own, Elite CNC Routing & Woodworks. Hendrix's business has expanded beyond woodworking, and now machines and fabricates mostly engineered plastics into wearable parts for the lumber and paper mill industries.

Upon the spread of COVID-19 Hendrix saw there were PPE shortages, particularly for face shields. “We decided we wanted to help our local community and we had the equipment set up to produce them,” said Hendrix. 

He and his wife found an open-source design that they utilized to fit their needs and started producing the face shields immediately. “In our initial production run, we produced 235 of these face shields,” added Hendrix. “We have distributed them to the Bulloch County EMA, local and regional hospitals, local medical establishments and personnel, and have even shipped some to Atlanta hospitals.”

Both in his CNC business and at his full-time medical imaging job, Hendrix has stayed busy and has been able to navigate these uncertain times by helping meet the needs of the community.