Local Business Gives Away More Than 300 Free Desks For Students

Finding a way to help out the community and surrounding area students and parents during the COVID-19 crisis, Infinitey Retail Services, Turtle Lake, went into production of simple yet effective school desks. The desks have been given away free of charge on three separate dates thus far, running out of desks in anywhere from 15 minutes Monday to just over an hour last Friday. To date 320 desks have been given away.
“We are using material that has been “leftover” from various projects throughout the years,” CEO Kevin Jansen explained. “The material is good, but the colors are rarely repeated. We tend to hoard this material for making crates, prototypes or other items that are not color specific,” Jansen added.
The idea of producing and giving away the desks was pitched by Senior Engineer Brock Molls.
“I got the idea from a news article I read that another company similar to Infinity started doing this ­– making the desk and giving them away to all the school kids,” Molls explains on Infinity’s Facebook page. “All the kids are doing their school work from the floor or the couch. It was the least we could do to help out the community.”
A simple desk that consisted of four pieces and could be put together without the need of tools was designed. Molls then pitched the idea to Jansen, who thought it was a great idea.
Molls says within two hours a prototype was develped and approved and two hours later Infinity employees were in full production of their first run of desks.
“Our engineering team decided that the desk needs to meet the following five criteria: Excellent material utilization; Ease of assembly, using only what every household has – a hammer and Phillips screwdriver; A height that works well for students Pre-K thru 12; Small enough to conveniently fit in a small room or corner of the living room yet large enough to be useful; Easy to manufacture,” Jansen explained.
The first giveaway began at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning and within an hour the first production run was gone. At 1:00 p.m. that afternoon a second give-away took place and once again the response was tremendous.
With the first two giveaways such a success, 16 employees returned to work on the weekend to produce another load of desks.
Another 115 desks were produced and given away Monday morning, gone in 15 minutes. That brought the total of desks produced by Infinitey to 320.
“The need for the desks has been overwhelming,” said Jansen. “Brock’s idea has turned into all hands on deck. Everyone at Infinity has taken pride and ownership of this project to help our community. We hope the desks inspire students to personalize them to their own taste and flair.”
Curious of where the people have been coming from, employees who have handed out the desks have inquired as to where the recipients are from. “A lot of residents have been from the Turtle Laker area but there have been residents from Ladysmith, Luck, Eau Claire and even Racine,” Jansen said.
While Infinity is continuing production of the desks, Jansen explained the leftover stock will run out at approximately 750 desks. Other options to continue production are being explored, such as the possibility of sponsorship of the desk’s production. No date as to an additional give-away had been determined. Presently, Infinity is continuing the manufacturing the desks while keeping their normal work flow going.
“These are clearly challenging times for all ages. Our hope is that we can make a positive impact during this time, within our community and surrounding areas.”
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