18 | MAY 7 • 2020 

Jews in the D

continued from page 17

which triggered an email to 
Fredrickson’
s inbox, indi-
cating the buyer’
s name and 
address.
By the following morning, 
so many orders had come 
in that his email software 
crashed. The team was 
stunned. 
“That moment was when 
we knew there was something 
going on that was way bigger 
than what we had thought,” 
Rapp said. 
They went to work by hir-
ing a fulfillment manager and 
tapping their network. Within 
two days, they had truckloads 
arriving of hydrogen perox-
ide, glycerol and packaging 
materials.
It’
s been an all-hands-on-
deck effort. 
“When we realized what 
kind of need was there,” Rapp 
said, “we shared it with our 
staff and everybody stepped 
up and said, ‘
I’
ll give it every 
hour I can to try to get this 
done.’
”
Jeri Seeley, general manag-
er at The Outpost, said she 
is busier than she has ever 
been, fielding daily frenzies 
of emails and calls. Rapp says 
Phil Smith, a bottling line 
manager, is driving a van all 
day long, delivering hand san-
itizer to places that need it.
In addition to selling san-
itizer, TC has also donated 
more than 5,000 gallons, 
Rapp said, to “pretty much 
every police department, fire 
department and nursing facil-
ity Up North,” plus dozens of 
organizations in the Detroit 
area, including numerous 
senior care homes. 
Trinity Health, a health 
system operating in over 20 
states, received 132 cases 

from TC on April 17 and then 
another shipment on April 21. 
“For Traverse City Whiskey 
to turn around a little over 
21,000 bottles of hand sani-
tizer in such a short amount 
of time is pretty remarkable, 
and the timing could not 
have been better,” said Trinity 
Health supply chain director 
Jennifer Chenard. “‘
Thank 
you’
 really is not enough.”
TC has also offered some of 
its supply of key ingredients at 
cost to other distillers in the 
state. 
 The company has limited 
order quantities, so that it can 
provide hand sanitizer to as 
many people and places as 
possible.
Rapp gushes with pride 
over his team’
s hustle and 
ingenuity. They’
ve repurposed 
caps from ketchup, mustard 
and windshield washer bottles 
— “you name it” — for the 
sanitizer. 
On Wednesday, April 
22, Whitmer gave another 
address: “Dozens of business-
es have stepped up,” she rhap-
sodized, before giving shout-
outs to several companies, 
including TC Whiskey.
“With our size and scale,” 
Rapp reflected, “that brings 
with it great responsibility to 
our fellow citizens. We really 
had no choice but to answer 
that calling.” 

Hand sanitizer orders can be placed at 
tcwhiskeyshop.com.

LET US DESIGN YOUR DREAM KITCHEN


FREE In-Home Estimates