CHATSWORTH, Calif. — A California entrepreneur has launched a new campaign to “unite and strengthen” COVID-19 pandemic-weary communities, one antiseptic wipe at a time.
Eric Lundgren, owner of Chatsworth, California-based BigBattery Inc., recently unveiled GiveWipes.com, his latest effort to funnel profits into community service.
“Wipes keep students and workers safe, provide compassion to the destitute and humanity for our homeless. They provide peace of mind to gather and share our lives with others,” the campaign’s website states.
Specifically, Lundgren has produced 400 million sanitary wipes and opened up their distribution to online donations. People looking to help need only decide if they want to donate a box, pallet or truckload to the destination of their choice and pay roughly 25 cents per pack to cover postage and shipping.
According to GiveWipes.com, each box contains 45 packs, totaling 1,800 wipes. Each pallet contains 1,680 packs, or a total of 67,200 wipes.
Lundgren has personally given away tens of thousands of the wipes to the military, schools, nursing homes and homeless shelters, but as of Wednesday morning, fewer than 79 million of the 400 million wipes had been distributed.
Although the suggested retail price to purchase 400 million wipes at a big-box retailer is about $38 million, Lundgren said the actual cost being donated by GiveWipes.com is about $2.6 million, WZTV reported.
“Whenever (BigBattery makes) a profit, we try to figure out how we can give that back, and we made a profit, and this is us giving back,” according to GiveWipes.com.
Lundgren made national headlines in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic by loaning 10 mobile solar trailers – fueled by repurposed lithium-ion batteries – to help power COVID-19 triage centers at area hospitals in his home state. He also leveraged his supply chain to help provide million of pieces of medical supplies such as face masks, face shields and full-body gowns to medical centers in need, KTTV reported.
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Cox Media Group