We continue our series highlighting the extraordinary measures that private enterprise has taken to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic here in Michigan. As the state continues to reel from the effects that the shutdown has had on individual lives and the economy, Michiganders have banded together to help each other. Whether it’s an NFL receiver who chooses to return to his hometown to personally distribute hand sanitizer or a woman who decorates her yard with handmade free masks that families can take for free, individuals across the state are putting their skills to use caring for their communities’ most pressing needs.

Michigan companies have also been going the extra mile to mediate the coronavirus’ harms. In Detroit, a hotbed for the pandemic, Quicken Loans and Rocket Mortgage have created an extensive coalition of private enterprises in the region to equip hospitals and front-line workers with the tools they need to fight COVID-19. Local breweries have switched to brewing kegs of hand sanitizer to combat shortages and Meijer, a Michigan grocery chain, has been handing out thousands of face masks every day. On the research side of fighting the pandemic, lab companies like BIOTECH have been expediting COVID-19 tests so that Michigan employees can return to work to provide for themselves and their families.

What follows is a compilation of these and other stories from the last few weeks demonstrating the ways that private companies and individuals in Michigan are making a difference.

Crain’s Detroit Business: JPMorgan Chase commits 1 million to Detroit small businesses, workers during coronavirus

Crain’s Detroit Business: BIOTECH Labs ramps up COVID-19 testing capacity to help Michigan businesses, nonprofits reopen

Crain’s Detroit Business: Giving Hope: Central City Integrated Health initiative provides PPE, testing kits

Detroit Free Press: Donations from companies helps to address shortages due to coronavirus pandemic

The Detroit News: Royal Oak tree Sprouts free masks for neighbors

The Detroit News: Ilitch employees producing 60,000 masks per day

MLive: Meijer distributing 750,000 KN95 face masks to front-line workers, first responders

MLive: Vikings receiver K.J. Osborn returns home to donate hand sanitizer to Ypsilanti families

MLive: Howell chemical company switches to producing hand sanitizer

Quicken Loans: Rocket Mortgage, Quicken Loans and Rock Family of Companies Unleash Full Arsenal of Resources and Announce Public-Private Partnerships to Source, Procure and Manufacture Materials to Fight coronavirus Pandemic

Editor's Note: We will continue to highlight these types of stories in the coming weeks. If you see examples in your local community and would like to share them, please contact Holly Wetzel at wetzel@mackinac.org.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.